Dublin Bay Coastline Google Timeline Map

Click through to google earth plugin view
One of many half done things, should I finish it give it labels etc.


2013 update
spreadsheet of sources for dublin bay coastline
looking at this again to see if i can find a tool that put this much info on screen.
things that don't quite work Bridges time line

ver2
Dublin Bay coast polygon timeline


using qgis+time manager plugin and mapstory http://mapstory.org/maps/507/ http://mapstory.org/maps/508/ unfortunatly neither display info before 1900!...?



Dublin Bridges over Liffey by year

Irish European Election Constituencies Map

European Elections Constituency commission report on European Elections Constituencies (2007-9, PDF).

Google Earth Kmz version
Google map browser version

Version with Candidates Names Placed
Google Earth
GM Browser

Not perfect but use and see what you can do with it. You can use a program like Ge-Graph to add 3d graphs or colour gradients with stats etc.

Clear

Irelands Elected MEPs East Liam Aylward MEP (FF) Mairéad McGuinness MEP (FG) Nessa Childers (LAB) NorthWest Jim Higgins MEP (FG) Marian Harkin MEP (IND) Pat 'The Cope' Gallagher (FF) South Senator Alan Kelly (LAB) Seán Kelly (FG) Brian Crowley MEP (FF) Dublin Gay Mitchell MEP (FG) Joe Higgins (SP) Proinsias De Rossa MEP (Lab) Full Candidate list Dublin (10 candidates: 2 FF, 1 FG, 1 LAB, 1 GP, 1 SF, 1 SP, 1 LIB, 2 IND) Cllr Eibhlin Byrne (FF) Senator Deirdre De Burca (GP) Proinsias De Rossa MEP (Lab) Joe Higgins (SP) Mary Lou McDonald MEP (SF) Patricia McKenna (IND) Gay Mitchell MEP (FG) Eoin Ryan MEP (FF) Caroline Simmons (LIB) Emmanuel Sweeney (IND) East (11 candidates: 2 FF, 2 FG, 2 SF, 1 LAB, 1 LIB, 3 IND) Liam Aylward MEP (FF) Thomas Byrne TD (FF) Nessa Childers (LAB) Kathleen Funchion (SF) Paddy Garvey (IND) Micheál E Grealy (IND) Mairéad McGuinness MEP (FG) Raymond O'Malley (LIB) Senator John Paul Phelan (FG) Tomás Sharkey (SF) Jim Tallon (IND) North West (13 candidates: 2 FF, 2 FG, 1 LAB, 1 SF, 1 LIB, 6 IND) Pat 'The Cope' Gallagher (FF) Paschal Mooney (FF) Jim Higgins MEP (FG) Senator Joe O'Reilly (FG) Susan O'Keefe (LAB) Declan Ganley (LIB) Marian Harkin MEP (IND) Cllr Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (SF) Fiachra Ó Luain (IND) Michael McNamara (IND) Noel McCullough (IND) Thomas King (IND) John Francis Higgins (IND) South (10 Candidates - 2 FF, 2 FG, 1 LAB, 1 GP, 1 SF, 3 IND) Brian Crowley MEP (FF) Ned O'Keeffe TD (FF) Colm Burke MEP (FG) Seán Kelly (FG) Senator Alan Kelly (LAB) Senator Dan Boyle (GP) Cllr Toiréasa Ferris (SF) Maurice Sexton (IND) Kathy Sinnott MEP (IND) Alexander Stafford (IND) Irish Times candidate details RTE candidate details General EU links electionsireland.org politics.ie europeanelections micanddiate profiles euobserver.com euprofiler.eu candidatewatch.ie www.votematch.eu

Antony Gormley Sculpture for Dublin Docklands permitted

The Antony Gormley Sculpture for the Dublin docklands has been giving permission by the Dublin City Council as noted in the Sunday Times.

The Dublin docklands has jumped on the big name fad but I think Gormley work like the Blind Light installation (where you can't tell the difference between people and sculpture among the smoke) and the pieces like the Quantum Cloud are exceptional and you can seen the engineering and craftwork much easier then in something like the bland Spire.

I like his description of it as a ‘like a charcoal drawing against the sky, changing as your position changes in relation to it’ as it will covered in black matt paint and think the use of complex angles to create something that the eye has to fill in itself is very clever.

View Orientation,structure and base plans

The sculpture is being made by the Advanced Geometry Unit of Arup Engineers, London. The science behind the sculpture which is based on TCD Weire-Phelan geometries of the bubble matrix!
to create and see through but sturdy lattice. It the same formula used for the Beijing Olympic swimming pool Other examples of his use of engineering on Body Space Frame and Quantum Cloud construction The right placement?

Quantum Cloud

Placement planning map

Its been placed on the south bank of the Liffey 12 metres from the quay and 30 metres down on seaward side of the Sean O'Casey bridge. It will be 46 metres high 12 metres its widest take eight months to erect and will cost €1.6m.

Some nearby residents objected the idea of towering over them and were They were on Liveline on Monday raising their concerns.

Embedded from RTE.IE

The DDDA say "The authority could have located the statue, which is 80% the height of Liberty Hall, in an area where it needed no planning permission, but chose to site it at City Quay on the seaward side of the Sean O’Casey bridge, to allow for public input."

Lombard and City qauy resident objections

The East Wall Residents' Association said it planned to object to the project because there had been no public consultation. Indo 07 I'm sure DDA would say they has been full public consultation and opportunities to object,a number of locations were listed for the sculpture in the EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) but the DDDA chose it and stuck with it. The main consideration was it not getting the way of boat traffic.

I think it could have been put further down the bay. I don't know why they had to put it next to the few remaining old residential houses on the docks. They should have put if further out. The 'Quantum Matrix' above seems to be more in open industrial space, rather then among the new city. Although there are the old warehouse of the CHQ and the Georges Dock Iron contraption it may have been more suited to where there is still some industrial activity. As pointed out in the objections there a number of other sculptures nearby to lives lost at sea and the linesman on the quay and the sculptural shape of the Sean O'Casey bridge itself but this overshadows them. Although this statue is much more light weight other submissions have compared its height to the Statue of Liberty or Christ figure in Rio which are in far more open spaces. I think the artist wanted it near people but somewhere nearer Grand Canal dock would have been just as busy.An Taisce submission preferring another location.

The decision mentions the request for it to be put in more open area(page 13,pg.2) but rejects it without really giving a good overriding reason.

"It is positioned at a point between the old and new development areas of Dublin City and on a prominent site when viewed along the Liffey Corridor and along one of the main thoroughfares down to the River Liffey. It is also at a location where north/south and east/west pedestrian movements intersect.

"In addition, the proposed site allows the sculpture to be viewed against the skyline within an area of Dublin that has low rise buildings on both sides of the river and it does not interfere with navigation on the river Liffey"

DDDA may use these sculptures to distract from thing like their plan for buildings on stilts jutting out into the Liffey with a canal (an open grey system) behind it(Archiseek). And the deliberate dereliction and speculation that the docklands redevelopment is based on.

DDDA Updates
Non Techincal Sumamry of the EIS
Full EIS
Planning searchReference code 0430/97
planning submission
View Orientation,structure and base plans
Irish Times interview with Antony Gormley

ps I don't think the money could be spent elsewhere for the homeless or the hospitals I just don't think they come from the same budget.

ps Why did the DDDA with all this derelict docklands space, only allow 7 story buildings, if you going to blame anybody for lack of high rise in Dublin don't blame nimbys or an Taisce blame the DDDA.

Lisbon referendum results 3d map

Trying to see if its worth putting this in 3d and how best to visualize the votes. At the moment it hard to see the difference in yes and no. ETA June 13th. I've gotten the results for Lisbon treaty and added them to many eyes that I described in my previous post. Lisbon Treaty 2008 Visualisations

With the help of sgrillo's GE-Graph

The google earth in browser API is quite heavy so lets try another new thing from google, static maps. With the help of Peel me a grape coder blog

Nahh that work either starting map as ordinary sat view with earth browser option.

Updated with Lisbon 2008 referendum results: NO % constituency.

If you don't see any 3d maps you need a quick download and read of requirements of the google earth in browser plug-inDirect download

Updated with Lisbon 2008 referendum results: Yes % by constituency.

Results from Referendum Commission.
electionsireland.org

Compare with displays of results by rte.ie
ireland.com.

What I like about google maps is that you can it use to produce 2d maps of good quality and variation too. No need to redo in flash.

Why move Dublin port to Bremore?

2009 Update Added Details of port zone extension. port-development-to-take-ships-twice-current-size Application only available in police station under supervision? Indymedia Bremore next to be destroyed. Background Info 2009 Port threat to passage tombs Irish Times FMcD Major parts of new port to be built in Meath Why would you take away a cities main purpose? 2008 Tara Foundation video Photos http://www.panoramio.com/user/743400 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/673880 Bremore on panoramio Archaeology Archaeologist raises fears over new port site National Monument map viewer Hidden artefacts at Bremore: RTE Nationwide The Dublin Port Debacle tomb http://www.meathchronicle.ie/news/roundup/articles/2008/03/29/23872 megalithomania.com ancient-site-may-delay-bremore-port Ancient site may delay Bremore port Drogheda Port http://www.droghedaport.ie/cms/publish/port_generalinfo.shtml merchants wharf http://www.droghedaport.ie/cms/publish/article_99.shtml http://www.droghedaport.ie/cms/publish/article_231.shtml http://www.irishtrucker.com/articles/2005/january/drogheda.asp Bremore Port strategic infrastructure bill Drogheda port brochure for Bremore http://www.bremoreport.com/ http://www.irishexporters.ie/BremoreInvestment.shtml http://balbrigganchamber.ie/latest-news/BremorePort.php Balbriggan port-plans-may-leave-balbriggan-in-shadow Gormanstown Rezoned Land map(pdf) Fingal Council http://www.fingalcoco.ie/minutes/meeting_doc.aspx?id=16209 Meath Council Dublin Port Gov report on future of dublin port http://www.newheartfordublin.ie/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamax 12m port depths bremore 10.5? dublin 12 drogheda - tom roes 6.5m cork 12 bantry 23 Shannon Foynes Port 17 george owen tara foundation youtube balbriggan.net etc sean dublin loftus, port extension

Microsoft live Mapcruncher and birdseye view let down by aerial maps

Mircrosoft has added a birdseye view to micrsoft maps for parts of Ireland,they are amazing but its strange how their aerial/sat maps are _awful_, they seem to have skipped a process and gone for the four angled birdseye views, but you might not think to look at the excellent quality birdseye view for central Dublin after seeing the quality of their aerial maps...

I use flashearth to compare or just go to googlemaps or Live maps

Here are the brilliant birdseye view of Dublin which you can turn to see from four different angles(only two angles further out from city centres).(Click images to open maps).

Liberty Hall and customs house in Googlemaps.

This is how far in I can view Dublin city center! in MS maps.live.com

The problem is it makes it quite difficult to add overlay with mapcruncher(as I explain below).

Microsoft Mapcruncher
Microsoft Live version of Googleearth and Googlemaps/mymaps, its been around for a while but is still in beta and of limited use with low resolution images for maps.live.com for Ireland.

You have to download a small program and then find the area of interest on the map then load the overlay image and match points in the two images so Microsoft knows where to overlay it and account for curvature of the earth and terrain etc.(This with Ireland's low resolution images which disappear if you try to zoom in too far).

You click render, it then splits the top image into tiles to overlay on the server maps (which seems unnecessary on small maps?). You need a web space where you can upload multiple folders and files optimally your own web domain.

Here I overlayed the current image of Dublin airport with what it will look like when the second runway is built.(Source)

See the map; Live maps: New runway for Dublin Airport Mapcrunch

Googlemaps Mapplets
Google have added photos and videos as direct options to overlay on googlemaps, so you can just view and area and see corresponding photos from flickr,panoramio etc, so you view photos like

or perhaps zoom into Croke park

and see videos taken by somebody (badly on their mobile phone) of some past-it rock band or even GAA if that's your sort of thing.

PS. A Canal Bank Walk by kregori

New O'Connell Street Development

ETA Photos of the wooden models at archiseek. And views of Moore Street tour I posted about on Archseek, keep following the O'Connell street sorry there.

Finally after years of legal wrangling and speculation and deliberate dereliction of our national main street plans have been revealed of new mall for O'Connell street. 'Dublin Central'

RTE: The plans cover a 5.5-acre area known as Dublin Central which stretches from O'Connell Street to Moore Street and from Henry Street to Parnell Street.

See Irish Times:€1.2bn mall scheme to transform O'Connell Street area and Property Week:€1.25bn Dublin mixed-use scheme planned for details.

Another Irish Times article: €180m spent assembling 'Dublin Central' site describes how they want about buying all the building on face and behind O'Connell Street, Henry Street, Moore Street and Parnell Street.

Chartered Land are the developers who built the new Dundrum Town Centre, the refurbished Ilac Centre and Grand Canal Square and South King Centre.

Dublin Electoral Constituency Google map

Anyone coming to my blog looking for Dail constituencies, I don't have em.

The official Constituency Commission has images and detailed reports on the boundaries and changes.

Go here for the 2012 boundaries in google-kml http://www.tallyroom.com.au/maps (freeif credited to Ben Raue ) or here for more detailed ones with Electoral (sub) Divisions http://icampaigned.com/blog/dail-constituency-maps/ (not free) or go Ordnance Survey Ireland for commercial use files.

Of course I think digital boundaries files of useful detail should be information should be free for non-commercial reuse.

I had traced on the Dublin city and County Electoral commission for 2004 and made it available on bbs.keyhole.com but the Electoral Commission put out a report and new maps for 2012.

Dublin County Constituency (draft v2.0) and for Google Earth program and for Googlemaps to view in your browser

A lot of outer Dublin wasn't very clear in GE but they updated some areas like the Dublin mountains so I can trace the border more accurately, but not the very northwest of county Dublin.

Just the Dublin City Electoral Constituency (draft v2.0) for Google Earth program and for Googlemap to view in your browser.

So I've updated them here I consider it still a draft until more eyes have been on it to spot any mistakes I may have made. I had hesitated on publicising them more because I thought maybe bad maps are worse then no maps. But along as have caveats about their accuracy people may still find them useful. At some point I saved an old map over a newer ones I had double checked which so I wasn't sure which I had double checked which browned me off on the whole thing. As new higher resolution photos of Dublin appear the lines no longer match exactly...:/ And the commission maps doesn't stretch and match over the GE satellite image either. I don't think they'll ever be perfect.

I'll add links descriptions, TD's, election result and other constituency stats.

2004 Dublin City and County Constituency Commission polygons and map overlay draft 2004

The Index of streets of the electoral register for Dublin City might be helpful to you, via Vocal Voter.
Dail at wikipedia Politics.ie Dail wiki Boundaries at electionsireland.org South Dublin

View Larger Map

PS. The creator of itison.tv has pointed there the OSI have new web service called Smartmaps He shows us some different views of Tara, Rath Lugh and Lismullin. There have couple of different types of maps you can buy but you can't seem to preview them. Also strangely there are earlier maps then the ones at the NPWS with maps from ~2003 that shows the scar of the M3 going through Tara, these aerial photos are very different a step clearer and brighter feel 70's.

PPS. Eirepreneur continues to jump start Irish uses of new mapping apps by giving an example of a collaborate google mymap, he has started one on wifi hotspots. I hope to find a project to create my own and get people involved. I was wondering would it be efficient to use this collaborative method to create maps for the constituencies for the rest of Ireland and the European and local elections, but I don't know whether hand traced maps data would eventually be useful for anybody to use and mash up to display other information. Any other ideas for useful Irish collaborative maps?

Tara Hill Skryne Valley Google Map

    
    
The white line marks the planned M3 tolled motorway route the green the existing N3 with the text labels marking points of interest with clickable photos. The yellow lines show the extent of Tara core complex with the red lines indicating defensive earthworks on the western boundary.The blue outline is the Tara hill core with the concentration of monuments. The red outline is the wider Kingship and Landscape of Tara researched by Conor Newman. The purple line is the old railway/alternative route.

New in browser GoogleEarth version of this map. 
Multiple Googlemaps of Tara and the M3 Motorway

More mapping info on tara

googlemapsmania one of the main mapping blogs on the web included my page in a post, thanks to them hopefully more people will hear about the threat to Tara.

They also had a link to LookAroundIreland. A site using interactive photo panoramas and googlemaps to show tourist and heritage spots around Ireland. Including Tara and Liafail. Also a fantastic panorama from the central chamber of Newgrange.

I don't know how long this has been around on www.archaeology.ie It is live Record of Monuments and Places map... you can zoom in anywhere in Ireland to see archaeological features on detailed map, highlight them with a box and then it will list what they are, unfortunately it doesn't actually give the name of the specific feature only the type like 'hilltop fort' or ''barrow.

They still don't seem to have a straight list of national monuments available on the web. the one on the OPW site was taken down because they said there were too many errors on it.

Aerial photos of Ireland are available at the National Parks and wildlife service website for Ireland, I don't know how much of Ireland they cover but I seen numerous areas which are better quality and more recent then googlemaps. It primarily shows special conservation areas with aerial photos overlayed with contours.

I've already mentioned Megalithmania and the Modern Antiquarian.

Megalithomania Reports on numerous archaeological sites in Ireland with additional geographic information. You can view notes, photos and then view it place marked in googlemaps and search to view other megaliths in the area.

The Modern Antiquarian uses a similar system Juliana Cope's online personal antiquarian guide. I also discovered their own downloadable kmls for googleearth, with all the sites marked with a photo popping up beside aswell. Even has google v4 and v3 version

Tara's Legendary view to the west. And other views of Rath Lugh.

I found a site called heywhatsthat.com that is supposed to, (using googlemaps), give you a panoramic view of the mountain peaks you can see from a particular point. It's also supposed to show you the visible field you could see from that point (the view shed). Now I thought this would be useful to map the legendary view across Ireland from the top of the Hill of Tara, I'm not sure it works properly, the site uses raw data from NASA/DEM and as ever its more refined for the US then the rest of the world. I would have expected to see a much larger red area, but maybe it to does give a good indication of the legendary view, and that Tara Hill has sight of a lot more land to the west then the east and that even if built further away that the motorway would have been more visible from Tara to the west. The NRA has said the didn't go west of Tara because of people homes , there was more archaeology there and the motorway would be even more visible from the hill of Tara.Link to Tara panorama.

The red is the visible field the Purple X marks Tara hill at elevation 505 ft above sea level (6 ft above ground)

It also shows contour lines but earthtools.org is better for that.

Wide contour

Close up contour

Recognise Rath Lugh's position in relation to Tara
Tara is the central hill and to the northeast protecting the northern approach is the Rath Lugh promentary fort jutting out into the Gowra river valley in between.

Source http://www.fallingrain.com/world/EI/0/Ross.html

Gabhra Valley from Rath Lugh April 2007 MNiB

Google mapping in Ireland

This is review of the Irish googlemapping and link archive for me. (Or is this what they call link baiting? :), I found it very interesting to look at google analytics to see what visitors have come, I'm liking google at the moment). Anyway even though Ireland has such a high use of the net and Google's European headquarters is here I still feel there isn't as much Irish google mapping out there as you'd think.

Spatial Ireland A blog that has comprehensively covering happenings in Irish mapping since 2004.

mapeire.com A Irish geo-directory (not being worked on).

openeir An open source map of Ireland using GPS way points, it says, seems to have gone into hibernation.

Openstreestmap.org Collaborative Open source GPS map of (roads of) the world and Ireland.

http://mkmap.com/dublin Dublin Bus routes on a editable googlemap. An excellent site that already list 35 dublin bus routes so you can follow exactly which road the bus goes on its route, afaik nothing like this is available from CIE on paper or web. It was called dublincitybus.com but now allows you to add and edit your own maps and add lots tourist info like bars and hotels.

Dublin Rail Lines and stations Dublin transport.kmz
The Rail in Meath old tracks and planned and potential new ones. Still need to be looked over by someone Irish rail knowledge. rail.kmz

Dublin cycling routes on routeslip.com A few dozen GPS recorded cycling routes around Dublin.

Dartmaps See where the darts trains are in real-time. Was this the first and cleverest Irish google maps mashup?

Election: Some efforts were made to use googlemaps in the recent election although they weren't fully completed. Politics.ie constituency googlemap.

Daft.ie A functional use of googlemaps. A warning though the place mark points to the midpoint of the street rather then actually where the place is.

Contour maps of the world including Ireland

heywhatsthat See a panorama of the mountains viewable from your view point, with contours and visible field.

Geocaching Ireland Geocaching is treasure hunting with GPS to find hidden caches.

A topo map for Ireland Data for a contour map of Ireland via a Scottish site via NASA raw data, there isn't any proper product for this freely available yet. Can use for your GPS unit or view on your computer.

Why aren't OS map not being free for non-commerical public use? like in most countries Interview with the OSI (pdf) Questions asked about lack of affordable digital mapping.

mountainviews.ie Extensive collaborative gazette of mountain hikes and views.

Megalithomania Might have the most extensive use of googlemapping for Ireland with reports on numerous archaeological sites in Ireland with additional geographic information. You can view notes photos and then view it place marked in googlemaps and search to view other megaliths in the area.

The Modern Antiquarian uses a similar system, Juliana Cope's online personal antiquarian guide.

mymaps When I first looked at this a few months ago, I thought it was astounding, the uses are endless, it incredible simply and quick to use, but at same time its a bit limited in what it will allow you to do, but now they introduced mapplets and there's alot more hacks and how-tos around it its becoming easier to figure out how to use it. I found it it fristrating that I couldn't use polgygons/polyines I used to map info in googelearth in googlemaps I still don't think you can but I have used the mymaps interface to add simple lines to my embedded googlemap on this site.

I don't know why googlemaps chose and continues to use these default placemarks and info-windows they are oversized and ugly, thankfully I found a javascript class that let me float text on my maps so you can immediately see what to click on. LabeledMarker page. Although I havn't found a way to make the info windows smaller when they open so the fit around the info.

Transformative? I've occasionally worried about copyright, although I think I once read about things being ok if its a transformative use of it and hand tracing maps could fall into that category in (googleearth). But I've always tried to credit and ask permission for use from the littleguys.

Flash Earth A flash interface where you can switch easily between googlemaps/yahoomaps/virtual earth NASA maps and others.

eirepreneur A blog that was supposed to be about public relations/marketing but which is increasingly about using technology to network for your business and pushing the use of Web 2.0 in Ireland including googlemaps.

Misc Maps Uses.

Various places of interest in Ireland
Dublincrime.com Mapping Dublin's crime stats.(not updated)
roaddeaths.ie Mapping road deaths (ceased updated 10/08/07)
pumps.ie Petrol pump prices by location.
Properpint.com Dublin pub guide based on googlemaps (beta)
Dublin traffic info mapA mash up of AA roadwatch info.
Map of Dublin traffic cams This doesn't work anymore, pity something that should be resurrected. See it at http://www.programmableweb.com/mashup/dublin-web-cams

Useful layes/kml for google earth.
Outline of Ireland's counties
Image overlay of Ireland topography A 15mb! image from NASA site.
3D buidlings of DublinA few of Ireland Buildings done is 3D in sketchup to view in googlearth.
GB & Ireland Grid-Lines Layer

http://www.geograph.org.uk Geograph is a mosaic map of the UK and Ireland represented by photos takens at those location.

Main googlemaping sites
Googlemapmania blog (Ireland tag).
www.ogleearth.com

I haven't explored yahoo maps very much yet, anytime I used its been very poor, although I keep reading that its Irish coverage is better then google but I think that in relation to its road maps rather then its satellite imagery.

I don't really get geocoding. ( I guess it being able to type in a placename and being brought to its coordinates). Ireland has it now.

September 07 updates

Some of the Irish government webpages are brilliant, well done to the people seeing these through. Although the OSI retains full copyright of its data, its unfortunate that they don't release the info for amateur/personal/non-commercial use), I have used grabs of their maps for my maps but I haven't published them I don't know how jealously they guard use of their maps. I don't know if they'd go after amateur users...so I haven't included grabs of their maps in anything I put on the net.

Digital GSI maps of Ireland
Hmm maybe this says otherwise, its free to access and use, I guess publishing is different who ever said putting something on the net for othes to see was 'publishing'?. Geographic Institute of Ireland Oceanographic maps of Ireland and its territories

National Parks and Wildlife service maps These maps show National Parks and Specials Areas of conservation. They over layed on very useful aerial maps/contour maps of Ireland. These maps are more up to date and higher res then many google sat maps.

Archaelogical Survey of Ireland Map of record monuments protected list, over old map with contour lines. Pity it doesn't name them, just there number and the RMP list is not online because they say it has too many errors on it. Ill have to find another list.

irishspeedtraps.com A detailed googlemap of Irish speed cameras you can even download them to your sat nav, purely for safety purposes of course.

Cycling in Dublin Routes/Times A busy cycler's record of routes and times in and out of Dublin city.

Archaeology = professional grave-robbing?

Gormley 'can't make M3 go away'
Ronan McGreevy Irish Times Saturday, August 18, 2007
Minister for the Environment John Gormley has said he has "no magic wand" to make the M3 motorway go away. Mr Gormley met protesters against the proposed motorway who picketed the offices of the Green Party on Suffolk Street in Dublin yesterday. The meeting, which took place in a restaurant close to party headquarters, was an impromptu affair which took place as Mr Gormley was in the vicinity. He said he had no good news for protesters. "There seems to be a belief among them, and it has been propagated by some of them, that I have a magic wand and I can make the road go away. I can't," he said. "The situation is that this road was agreed to many years ago before I'd even come in. I don't even drive a car myself. "I'm not a great enthusiast for motorways in general, but the fact is that my own function as Minister for the Environment is in the designation of national monuments. "I don't have the good news that they want. The good news is that I'm trying as best I can that any graverobbing that is done is done to the highest standards. "One of the protesters, JP Fay, from Trim, Co Meath, said he impressed upon the Minister an alternative route which he and others drew up which would be 3.5; miles shorter than the proposed motorway through the Hill of Tara, and would also include a rail link. "Our meeting was short. It was hello, thank you. He took my phone number and said he would look up the stuff that I sent to him already, but I think that it is snow and it will melt."

Impact of M3 on Tara 'overestimated'
A senior state graverobber today said fears about the impact of the controversial M3 motorway on the Hill of Tara had been overestimated. The National Roads Authority's (NRA's) Mary Deevy said she believed the proposed road would not impact on the Tara landscape in Co Meath and was further from the ancient site than the existing carriageway. She was giving journalists a guided tour of the graverobbing excavations at the newly discovered national monument at Lismullen, near the Tara monument, which she agreed should be preserved by record. This comes as environmentalists plan to take to the streets of Dublin tomorrow for a Love Tara march, before presenting the Government with a petition demanding the road be re-routed. "I think Tara is a very special place, but I think some people have overestimated the impact (of the motorway)," Ms Deevy said. "There is no way to change their minds until the project is finished and they can see for themselves." Ms Deevy reiterated the state's position that the motorway will not impact on the Tara monument and would be further from the ancient site than the existing road. "It saddens me to think that people would think that." She added some fears about the future development of the Tara area were legitimate, but said a landscape conservation scheme was being considered by Meath County Council which had been included in the current county development plan. This would restrict the construction of large-scale housing developments and retail outlets. http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0720/breaking69.htm

Information and Misinformation: a challenge for the Irish Grave-robbing Profession 09 May 2007 The recent media coverage about the prehistoric hengiform enclosure and other sites revealed on the M3 Clonee to north of Kells motorway route, illustrates an alarming degree of public misunderstanding about the nature of buried grave-robbing sites and remains, and how these sites are identified and revealed. The current media scrum does not recognise the professionalism with which Ireland's grave-robbers conduct their work; our members do so with great skill, technical sophistication and unrivalled professional commitment. The output of the Irish profession is recognised internationally as being of the highest standard. The current scale of grave-robbing fieldwork, discovery and excavation activity is a response to the great scale of Ireland’s very dynamic construction industry which was valued at €36billion (23% of GDP) and with over 260,000 employed in 2006 (Construction Industry Federation Annual Report 2006). This is completely ignored. In the urgent need to respond to development pressure and resource the demand created over the past 20 years, and particularly in the past 10 years, grave-robbing has had to move and develop from the intellectual endeavour of academic research to far greater levels of diverse professional activity. That professional activity now ranges from policy formulation, the development of legal definitions and protective provisions, state regulation and heritage management. It extends into development control and the provision for appropriate cultural responses to the impact on heritage of very significant economic development. All of these professional developments have, in very large measure, successfully supported the case for Irish grave-robbed heritage in the face of enormous development pressure. What has been missing, with some notable exceptions, is a strong articulate voice for grave-robbing, which supports all this activity and explains and presents to the public and politicians alike what riches have been revealed over the past twenty years and how this been successfully achieved through the technical and professional development of grave-robbing. Public presentation has not kept pace. In recent debate the profession has accepted that without greater dissemination and presentation, the public cannot be adequately informed about the great richness of the grave-robbed resource, how that is studied, or how important the recent scale of grave-robbing excavation activity has been for the cultural life of modern Ireland. The discovery on the M3 route at Lismullin is important, but recent media reports have been worryingly inaccurate and misleading. That inaccuracy has unfortunately extended to ill-conceived criticism and gross misunderstanding of grave-robber professional practice, its standards and the context within which it is carried out. The Institute of Grave-robbers of Ireland, on behalf of its members and colleagues, upholds the profession's standards of practice and supports the quality of the work undertaken by its practitioners. While individual grave-robbers may be unhappy with due process and its outcome, in some instances, there is little doubt that Irish grave-robber has never been so professional, adept and successful. Though there is always room for improvement - as in any scientific discipline - Irish professional archaeologists, institutions, companies and researchers are recognized for their very high standards on an international level. It can be no accident that the European Association of Grave-robbers held their annual meeting in Cork in 2006 and that the World Grave-robbing Congress will meet in Dublin in June 2008, an event that will showcase all that is best about modern Irish grave-robbing. The showcasing, however, must also be extended to Irish society at large.

http://iai.ie/PressReleases/Statement09-05-2007.html