Folklore’s Timeless Past, Ireland’s Present Past, and the Perception of Rural Houses in Early Historic Ireland

Abstract

This study examines how the archaeology of historic Ireland has been interpreted. Two approaches to the history and archaeology of Ireland are identified. The first, the timeless past, has its roots in a neo-Lamarckian view of the past. This perspective was particularly developed in the work of geographer and ethnographer, Estyn Evans. The second view, associated in particular with a nationalist approach to Ireland's past, looked to the west of the country where it was believed the culture had been preserved largely unchanged and in its purest form. The continuing impact of these frameworks upon the interpretation of rural settlement in the period 1200-1700 is examined. It is argued that historians and archaeologists alike have underestimated the quality of buildings.

Enchantments of stone: Confronting other-than-human agency in Irish pilgrimage practices

“…While I acknowledge the fundamental role of engagement with other-than-human agencies in pilgrimage practices across time, viewing these engagements within shifting dwelling taskscapes nuances simple understandings of continuity. This is an important exercise in Ireland, where both colonial and nationalist traditions of historiography have propagated narratives of persistence (Gardiner, 2011). Taskscape offers an analytical means for historicizing traditions without recourse to the problematic opposition of either timeless continuity or ''invented '' traditions (Hobsbawm and Ranger, 1983).…”

Rundale and 19th Century Irish Settlement: System, Space, and Genealogy

“…The study of rundale continues to attract attention, and if recent contributions serve as an indication, the controversies of the Queen's school are far from resolved (Dodgshon, 2012;Gardiner, 2011;Whelan, 2012). Archaeology offers a particularly promising avenue in this respect, as researchers continue to document evidence of transhumance-related booley sites, an extensive study of which has recently been undertaken under the Donegal Heritage Plan (Kerrigan, 2012) and the 'Field Names of County Louth' project (Campbell, 2014).…”

“…Andrews (1974Andrews ( , 1977, resulting in sustained questioning of his generalisations regarding the prevalence of homogeneous peasant systems of Celtic descent in Ireland. Andrews claimed that Evans' conclusions were insufficiently grounded in empirical evidence (see also Gardiner, 2011). Much debate over this small farm archetype has centred on the widely contested notion of the antiquity of the rundale system prevalent within the regions bounded by this archetype, its pattern of nucleated settlement, and its associated social institutions and practices of collectivisation.…”