Anyway, let us know how you get on?

His approach is somewhat anthropological, dividing the participants into several groups: the Forces of the Crown, Protestants and Unionists, and Home Rulers representing the ‘old politics’ with Sinn Féiners, Revolutionary Administrators and Guerilla Fighters representing the ‘new’. A final chapter takes a step backwards and investigates Separatism and Social Change (if memory serves).

He famously admits that his particular approach would not work for the Civil War period, preferring to leave it to future students of chaos. It’s a challenge many local historians have taken up over the years, with Connacht being particularly well covered.

Peter Hart worked under him in the ’80s and is referenced in the preface. Fitzpatrick went on to spearhead studies into Ireland’s participation in WW1 and was perhaps unfairly criticised for being partisan and ‘anti-nationalist’. It’s interesting that a colleague, John Horne now appears to have taken over the mantle, with the Irish Times and the RIA in tow. Fitzpatrick’s former contact in the paper of record was of course Kevin Myers, who, more latterly along with Joe Duffy have done a lot to alienate those with a genuine interest in the history of working class life in Ireland, lives surely dominated in urban and garrisoned areas by service in the British Army?

Fitzpatrick was a good enough supervisor, if a bit indifferent… I wouldn’t have called him a leftie by any stretch though. I’ve often wondered if he defends Peter Hart’s unusual research methods and refusal to discuss publicly the Kilmichael issue (which to be honest has blighted what promised to be an interesting career).

http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140191b.htm

http://www.history.unimelb.edu.au/Fitzpatrick/bibliography.html

Your point about the FG houses, though, is quite interesting. There’s an Irish historical truism that CnaG/FG didn’t spend any money on housing, when in fact it built almost as many houses during the 1920s as FF did during the 1930s. The difference was in who the houses were intended for. And that idea you have for an archeological project on your estate is a brilliant one. It’s needed as well.

there are loads of castles and fortified houses in the greater Finglas/Cabra area. Look at www.archaeology.ie and click on the Monuments Database button on the right. Click that you accept the usual terms and conditions stuff. A map will appear, so drag the map to the area you want, zoom in and each red dot is an archaeological monument. To see what each dot represents, click the i button on the toolbar above, wait a minute and text will come up on the right hand side of your screen, with a code, a name and a very brief classification of the site.

You’re probably talking about the castle at Finglaswood, DU014-76001, just north of the river closer to Cabra? Pelletstown castle DU014-074 is to the west and there has been a certain amount of pre-development archaeological work undertaken there by Margaret Gowen & Co. I can point you towards where you’d get more information on either site if you’re interested…

As always when discussing class, Conor’s original post is very interesting for us non-sociologists. Class is something that’s been traditionally ignored by most Irish archaeologists, certainly in their profession if not their praxis. Those of us engaged in historical archaeology (often theoretically confused with post-medieval archaeology) and especially those of us researching and even excavating what’s becoming known as the archaeology of the contemporary past, tend on the other hand, to posit class very centrally in our arguement. The best advocates tend to be from the libertarian/anarchist tradition (he wrote modestly!). Lots of reasons for this, which I won’t go into, but some of us are getting up a blog on the topic in the near future. We’ll keep you posted.

But back to Conor’s post… there’s even a greater reason to see class issues blanked out of archaeology, due to the poor preservation of the evidence. There’s no poverty of material there though and we’re to be criticised as a profession for our continued failure to address the boxes of stuff we’ve collected over the years, yet alone bring new interpretations and angles to the issue. It’s no surprise so to see ‘respected’ historical accounts such as Foster’s completely misinterpret the bleedin’ obvious. But there you go.

How’s the housing estate project going? Are there different types of houses within the one development? Our estate was built just after the Civil War, with the houses accommodating government supporters. It’s still quite FG in its complexion, with a TD and a councillor from living on the estate. Plywood mini-billboards are erected in gardens at election time, with a single FF interloper observed once in the past 10 years. It always surprises me how popular FG remain on the estate (which at this stage must be half and half, natives to newcomers like ourselves). I’m gonna try and run an archaeological project on the estate this election coming, looking at material culture, class and space… to try and answer this from another perspective, if anyone’s interested in getting involved?

thanks a million,
Pat

Gar, thanks very much for the comment.