Material and Intangible Interventions as Future
Making Heritage at Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.34566Keywords:
heritage, graffiti, Ireland, prison, restorationAbstract
This paper uses archaeological studies of political imprisonment in Ireland to show how (im)material interventions at Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin are central to understanding evolving identity and memory in post-partition Ireland. This heritage prison is not only an “icon” of historical struggle, it is a material entity where archaeological methodologies can help to uncover the past realities of imprisonment. Furthermore, it is a highly political place in the present where conflict continues regarding who “wins” the peace in the realm of public memory. This paper argues that archaeological approaches to a transitional heritage site are ideally placed to illuminate not only experiences of its functional past but also its evolving relationship with contemporary society as a form of future-making.
References
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Carman, J., G. D. Carnegie and P. W. Wolnizer. 1999. “Is Archaeological Valuation an Accounting Matter?” Antiquity 73 (279): 143–148. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00087937
Carver, M. 1996. “On Archaeological Value.” Antiquity 70 (267): 45–56.
Casella, E. C. and C. Fredericksen. 2004. “Legacy of the ‘Fatal Shore’: The Heritage and Archaeology of Confinement in Postcolonial Australia.” Journal of Social Archaeology 4 (1): 100–125. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605304039852
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____. 2000. “Kilmainham Gaol: Interpreting Irish Nationalism and Republicanism.” Open Museum Journal 2: 1–11.
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Gosden, C. and Y. Marshall. 1999. “The Cultural Biography of Objects.” World Archaeology 31 (2): 169–178. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1999.9980439
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____. 2016. “Archaeologies of Emergent Presents and Futures.” Historical Archaeology 50 (3): 165–180. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03377340
____., N. Bartolini, C. DeSilvey, C. Holtorf, A. Lyons, S. Macdonald, S. May, J. Morgan and S. Penrose. 2016. “Heritage Futures.” Archaeology International 19: 68–72. https://doi.org/10.5334/ai.1912
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Ingold, T. 1993. “The Temporality of Landscape.” World Archaeology 25 (2): 152–174. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1993.9980235
Jackman, G. 2009. “From Stain to Saint: Ancestry, Archaeology and Agendas in Tasmania’s Conflict Heritage. A view from Port Arthur.” Historical Archaeology. 43 (3): 101–112. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376764
Jarman, N. 1997. Material Conflicts: Parades and Visual Displays in Northern Ireland. Oxford: Berg.
____. 2001. “Troubling Remnants: Dealing with the Remains of Conflict in Northern Ireland.” In Matériel Culture: The Archaeology of Twentieth Century Conflict, edited by J. Schofield, W. G. Johnson and C. M. Beck, 281–295. London: Routledge.
____. and D. Bryan. 1996. Parade and Protest: A Discussion of Parading Displays in Northern Ireland: Coleraine, Northern Ireland: Centre for Study of Conflict, University of Ulster.
Jones, S. 2007. “Experiencing Authenticity at Heritage Sites: Some Implications for Heritage Management & Conservation.” Conservation & Management of Archaeological Sites 11 (2): 133–147. https://doi.org/10.1179/175355210X12670102063661
Lagerqvist, M. 2016. “Reverberations of a Crisis: The Practical and Ideological Reworkings of Irish State Heritage in Economic Crisis and Austerity.” Heritage & Society 9 (1): 57–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159032X.2016.1246155
Lowenthal, D. 1985. The Past is a Foreign Country. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lucas, G. 2005. The Archaeology of Time. London: Routledge
Matthews. A. 2012. Dissidents: Irish Republican Women, 1923-1941. Dublin: Mercier Press.
McAtackney, L. 2014. An Archaeology of the Troubles: The Dark Heritage of Long Kesh / Maze. Oxford University Press: Oxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199673919.001.0001
____. 2015a. “Memorials and Marching: Archaeological Insights into Segregated Tradition in Northern Ireland.” Historical Archaeology 49 (3): 110–125. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376975
____. 2015b. “Materialising Power Struggles of Political Imprisonment at Long Kesh/Maze Prison, Northern Ireland.” In Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism (second edition), edited by M. Leone and J. Knauf, 273–291. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12760-6_12
____. 2016. “Graffiti Revelations and the Changing Meanings of Kilmainham Gaol in (Post)Colonial Ireland.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 20 (3): 492–505. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-016-0355-4
MacDonald, D. 2010. Blood and Thunder: Inside an Ulster Protestant Band. Dublin: Mercier Press.
Mullally, U. 2016. “Why Women Have Risen to the Top in 1916 Lore.” Irish Times, 28 March. Online: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/una-mullally-why-women-have-risen-to-the-top-in-1916-lore-1.2588986
Murphy, W. 2014. Political Imprisonment and the Irish, 1912-1921. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199569076.001.0001
Ó Gráda, C. 2001. “Famine, Trauma and Memory.” Béaloideas 69: 121–143. https://doi.org/10.2307/20520760
O’Dwyer, R. 2010. The Bastille of Ireland: Kilmainham Gaol: From Ruin to Restoration. Dublin: The History Press.
O’Halloran, C. and N. Jarman. 2001. “Recreational Rioting: Young People, Interface Areas and Violence.” Childcare in Practice 7 (1): 2–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13575270108413230
Olivier, L. 2011. The Dark Abyss of Time: Archaeology and Memory. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
Olsen, B. and T. Petursdottir. 2014. Ruin Memories: Materialities, Aesthetics and the Archaeology of the Recent Past. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315778211
O’Sullivan, N. 2016. Written in Stone: The Graffiti of Kilmainham Gaol. Dublin: Liberties Press.
Philips, A. 2016. “Performance Art in Ireland Complicates and Plays with History.” Online: http://www.artscouncil.ie/Art-2016/Future-Histories/
Rhodes, L. 2001. “Towards an Anthropology of Prisons.” Annual Review of Anthropology. 30: 65–83. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.30.1.65
RTE. 2015. “Kilmainham Gaol and Courthouse 2016 Refurbishment Project”, 17 February. Online: https://www.rte.ie/news/special-reports/2015/0217/680901-kilmainham-gaol-courthouse-2016-refurbishment-project/
Strange, C. and M. Kempa. 2003. “Shades of Dark Tourism: Alcatraz and Robben Island.” Annals of Tourism Research 30 (2): 386–405. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383(02)00102-0
UNESCO. No date. “World Heritage.” Online: http://whc.unesco.org/en/about/
Ward, M. 1995. Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism. Dublin: Pluto Press.
Beiner, G. 2005. “Commemorative Heritage and the Dialectics of Memory.” In Ireland’s Heritages: Critical Perspectives on Memory and Identity, edited by M. McCarthy, 55–71. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Bennett, T. and P. Joyce, eds. 2010. Material Power: Cultural Studies, History and the Material Turn. London: Routledge.
Bryan, D. and N. Jarman. 1997. “Parading Tradition, Protesting Triumphalism: Utilising Anthropology in Public Policy.” In Culture and Policy in Northern Ireland: Anthropology in the Public Arena, edited by D. Hastings and G. McFarlane, 211–231. Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies.
Buchli, V. and G. Lucas. Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past. London: Routledge.
Cameron, C. 2010. “The Unnatural History of Heritage: What’s the Future for the Past?” Journal of Heritage Tourism 5 (3): 203–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743873X.2010.505289
Carman, J., G. D. Carnegie and P. W. Wolnizer. 1999. “Is Archaeological Valuation an Accounting Matter?” Antiquity 73 (279): 143–148. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00087937
Carver, M. 1996. “On Archaeological Value.” Antiquity 70 (267): 45–56.
Casella, E. C. and C. Fredericksen. 2004. “Legacy of the ‘Fatal Shore’: The Heritage and Archaeology of Confinement in Postcolonial Australia.” Journal of Social Archaeology 4 (1): 100–125. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605304039852
Cooke, P. 1995. A History of Kilmainham Gaol. Dublin: OPW.
____. 2000. “Kilmainham Gaol: Interpreting Irish Nationalism and Republicanism.” Open Museum Journal 2: 1–11.
Daly, M. and M. O’Callaghan. 2007. 1916 in 1966: Commemorating the Easter Rising. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy
Department of Foreign Affairs. 2015. “Launch of the Ireland 2016 Global and Diaspora Programme.” Online: https://www.dfa.ie/news-and-media/press-releases/press-release-archive/2015/june/launch-of-the-2016-global-and-diaspora-programme/
Deacon, H. 1996. The Island a History of Robben Island, 1488-1990. Cape Town: David Philip.
Dolan, A. 2003. Commemorating the Irish Civil War: History and Memory 1923-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fáilte Ireland. 2016. “Top Visitor Attractions in 2015 Revealed.” Online: http://www.failteireland.ie/Footer/Media-Centre/Top-Visitor-Attractions-in-2015-Revealed.aspx
Frederick, U. K. and A. Clarke. 2014. “Signs of the Times: Archaeological Approaches to Historical and Contemporary Graffiti.” Australian Archaeology 78 (1): 93–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.2014.11682004
Gosden, C. and Y. Marshall. 1999. “The Cultural Biography of Objects.” World Archaeology 31 (2): 169–178. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1999.9980439
Graham, B. and S. McDowell. 2007. “Meaning in the Maze: the Heritage of Long Kesh.” Cultural Geographies 14 (3): 343–368. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474474007078204
Hain, P. 2017. “Paralysis has Gripped Northern
Ireland but Politicians Just Look Blithely On.”
The Guardian, 14 November. Online: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/14/northern-ireland-politicians-sinnfein-dup-
stormont-theresa-may)
Harrison, R. 2011. “Surface Assemblages: Towards an Archaeology of and in the Present.” Archaeological Dialogues 18 (2): 141–161. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1380203811000195
____. 2013. Heritage: Critical Approaches. London: Routledge.
____. 2016. “Archaeologies of Emergent Presents and Futures.” Historical Archaeology 50 (3): 165–180. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03377340
____., N. Bartolini, C. DeSilvey, C. Holtorf, A. Lyons, S. Macdonald, S. May, J. Morgan and S. Penrose. 2016. “Heritage Futures.” Archaeology International 19: 68–72. https://doi.org/10.5334/ai.1912
Hicks, D. 2016. “The Temporality of Landscape Revisited.” Norwegian Archaeological Review 49 (1): 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00293652.2016.1151458
Holtorf, C. and A. Høgberg. 2015. “Contemporary Heritage and the Future.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Heritage Research, edited by E. Waterton and S. Watson, 509–523. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137293565_32
Ingold, T. 1993. “The Temporality of Landscape.” World Archaeology 25 (2): 152–174. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1993.9980235
Jackman, G. 2009. “From Stain to Saint: Ancestry, Archaeology and Agendas in Tasmania’s Conflict Heritage. A view from Port Arthur.” Historical Archaeology. 43 (3): 101–112. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376764
Jarman, N. 1997. Material Conflicts: Parades and Visual Displays in Northern Ireland. Oxford: Berg.
____. 2001. “Troubling Remnants: Dealing with the Remains of Conflict in Northern Ireland.” In Matériel Culture: The Archaeology of Twentieth Century Conflict, edited by J. Schofield, W. G. Johnson and C. M. Beck, 281–295. London: Routledge.
____. and D. Bryan. 1996. Parade and Protest: A Discussion of Parading Displays in Northern Ireland: Coleraine, Northern Ireland: Centre for Study of Conflict, University of Ulster.
Jones, S. 2007. “Experiencing Authenticity at Heritage Sites: Some Implications for Heritage Management & Conservation.” Conservation & Management of Archaeological Sites 11 (2): 133–147. https://doi.org/10.1179/175355210X12670102063661
Lagerqvist, M. 2016. “Reverberations of a Crisis: The Practical and Ideological Reworkings of Irish State Heritage in Economic Crisis and Austerity.” Heritage & Society 9 (1): 57–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159032X.2016.1246155
Lowenthal, D. 1985. The Past is a Foreign Country. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lucas, G. 2005. The Archaeology of Time. London: Routledge
Matthews. A. 2012. Dissidents: Irish Republican Women, 1923-1941. Dublin: Mercier Press.
McAtackney, L. 2014. An Archaeology of the Troubles: The Dark Heritage of Long Kesh / Maze. Oxford University Press: Oxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199673919.001.0001
____. 2015a. “Memorials and Marching: Archaeological Insights into Segregated Tradition in Northern Ireland.” Historical Archaeology 49 (3): 110–125. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376975
____. 2015b. “Materialising Power Struggles of Political Imprisonment at Long Kesh/Maze Prison, Northern Ireland.” In Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism (second edition), edited by M. Leone and J. Knauf, 273–291. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12760-6_12
____. 2016. “Graffiti Revelations and the Changing Meanings of Kilmainham Gaol in (Post)Colonial Ireland.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 20 (3): 492–505. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-016-0355-4
MacDonald, D. 2010. Blood and Thunder: Inside an Ulster Protestant Band. Dublin: Mercier Press.
Mullally, U. 2016. “Why Women Have Risen to the Top in 1916 Lore.” Irish Times, 28 March. Online: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/una-mullally-why-women-have-risen-to-the-top-in-1916-lore-1.2588986
Murphy, W. 2014. Political Imprisonment and the Irish, 1912-1921. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199569076.001.0001
Ó Gráda, C. 2001. “Famine, Trauma and Memory.” Béaloideas 69: 121–143. https://doi.org/10.2307/20520760
O’Dwyer, R. 2010. The Bastille of Ireland: Kilmainham Gaol: From Ruin to Restoration. Dublin: The History Press.
O’Halloran, C. and N. Jarman. 2001. “Recreational Rioting: Young People, Interface Areas and Violence.” Childcare in Practice 7 (1): 2–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13575270108413230
Olivier, L. 2011. The Dark Abyss of Time: Archaeology and Memory. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
Olsen, B. and T. Petursdottir. 2014. Ruin Memories: Materialities, Aesthetics and the Archaeology of the Recent Past. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315778211
O’Sullivan, N. 2016. Written in Stone: The Graffiti of Kilmainham Gaol. Dublin: Liberties Press.
Philips, A. 2016. “Performance Art in Ireland Complicates and Plays with History.” Online: http://www.artscouncil.ie/Art-2016/Future-Histories/
Rhodes, L. 2001. “Towards an Anthropology of Prisons.” Annual Review of Anthropology. 30: 65–83. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.30.1.65
RTE. 2015. “Kilmainham Gaol and Courthouse 2016 Refurbishment Project”, 17 February. Online: https://www.rte.ie/news/special-reports/2015/0217/680901-kilmainham-gaol-courthouse-2016-refurbishment-project/
Strange, C. and M. Kempa. 2003. “Shades of Dark Tourism: Alcatraz and Robben Island.” Annals of Tourism Research 30 (2): 386–405. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383(02)00102-0
UNESCO. No date. “World Heritage.” Online: http://whc.unesco.org/en/about/
Ward, M. 1995. Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism. Dublin: Pluto Press.
Published
2019-06-26
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
McAtackney, L. (2019). Material and Intangible Interventions as Future: Making Heritage at Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 6(1), 120-135. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.34566
