Researching and Protecting the Archaeological Heritage of the Easter Rising, War of Independence and Civil War

One of the lasting positive contributions of the Decade of Centenaries has been an increased focus on local narratives, greatly expanding our understanding of the history of the Revolutionary period. While these narratives, drawn mostly from documentary research, have often been accompanied by local commemorations and memorialisation, the contribution which archaeology, in the form of systematic analysis of the physical evidence of the past, can make to our understanding of the Revolutionary period has not, for the most part, been fully realised. The Easter Rising, War of Independence and Civil War are key events in recent Irish history that have left a material legacy in the modern landscape. What is less widely recognized is that many of the most significant sites and landscapes of the revolutionary period survive to this day. Using a combination of archaeological and historical methods, it is possible to establish the original location of places such as safe houses, training grounds, ambush sites and barracks and to identify the extent to which these survive into the present.