The Discovery Programme: Centre for Archaeology and Innovation Ireland is using online publication to make our research more accessible to the public.
The Discovery Programme: Centre for Archaeology and Innovation Ireland is publishing the latest volume in their series of research reports as a free online publication. The decision was made it to publish Discovery Programme Report 9: A Research Miscellany online to make our publically funded research accessible to a wider audience. This publication highlights the range of research being carried out by Discovery Programme staff past and current. This initiative announced as part of Heritage Week 2018 links with our current strategy of enabling people to become the custodians of their own landscapes and of creating a vibrant community of scholars to interpret these landscapes.
Discovery Programme Report 9 opens with a brief history of The Discovery Programme, including the role of the former Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey in its foundation. In his Ard Fheis speech in 1991 Haughey announced the establishment of the Discovery Programme and despite the modern approach to archaeology that was planned he used traditional romantic rhetoric of Ireland’s past in his announcement, invoking the royal Tara, the high-kings of Ireland and “the charioteers who drove the ancient road from Maeve’s high house at Croghan to Tara”.
While the Discovery Programme primary activity is archaeological research the interdisciplinary nature of the team conducting this research is reflected in this publication. The papers include one of our original projects with a paper on the Hill of Tara, as well as papers on medieval history and settlement, antiquarians and archaeology, surveying and technology in archaeology, aerial photography, and the future of archaeology in Ireland.
The Discovery Programme received financial assistance from the Heritage Council and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht towards this publication.
This volume can be downloaded from our Resources Section
