Narrating Past and Present: Archaeological Sites, Heritage and a Sense of Place in Ireland

Abstract

Studies of place and landscape abound in the anthropological literature. This thesis aims at synthesising archaeological and anthropological approaches to explore how archaeological sites contribute to a sense of place and national identity in the Republic of Ireland. I take a multi-sited approach to discuss three archaeological places: the Hill of Tara, a prehistoric earthwork in County Meath, the Rock of Cashel, a Medieval ecclesiastical site in Country Tipperary, and Dublin city as a commemorative place for the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising. These sites provide a way to examine how archaeological places support intangible ideas of place that are also mediated through a phenomenological experience of tangible sites. In focusing on the way that narratives are woven into and of place, I examine how meta-narratives of the Irish nation are experienced, contested and integrated through archaeological places. In this thesis I contend that the temporal and material qualities of archaeological sites are core features that define the narratives told of place, and that narrative and place are mutually constitutive, each structuring the experience of the other.