Avenues to an Afterlife?

© The Publisher & The Author

Full title: Exploring the Baltinglass cursus complex: routes for the dead

Creator / Author: James O’Driscoll

Item Type / Page count: Journal Article (online) / 18p

Journal Information: Antiquity First View, pp. 1-18

When Published: 25^th April 2024

Publisher / Place of Publication: Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd. / Cambridge, CB2 8AE, United Kingdom

About: James O’Driscoll, who has spent the past number of years investigating the Baltinglass Hillfort Complex, now presents his latest findings in an online article under the aegis of the scholarly journal ‘Antiquity’. The author describes a cluster of cursus monuments that have been discovered using the newest archaeology tools and techniques. This is the first time that a cluster of such monuments has been discoved in Ireland. The author concludes that the monuments “demonstrate a clear connection between the dead, major solar events and seasonal farming cycles”.

ID number(s): 0003-598X (Print), 1745-1744 (Online)

Article Contents: Abstract — Introduction — Neolithic Ireland and the Baltinglass Landscape — The Baltinglass Cursus Monuments — The Baltinglass Cursus Monuments in Context — Routes for the Dead? — Conclusion — Funding Statement — References.

Extra #1: includes maps and photographs.

Extra #2: Read this article online via the Publisher’s Website.

Extra #3: Link to the website of the journal ‘Antiquity’ at: https://antiquity.ac.uk/

Extra #4: The findings of James O’Driscoll in the above article have been picked up by a number of news outlets and social media streams. For example, ‘Newsweek’ (online edition) contains this item by Aristos Georgiou.

It’s Kildare, So There Must Be Horses

© The Publisher

Full title: Colonising a royal landscape: the history and archaeology of a medieval village at Mullamast, County Kildare

Creator / Author: Teresa Bolger, with contributions by Noel Dunne, Abby Mynett, Damian Shiels, Claudia Tommasino Suárez and Scott Timpany.

Item Type / Page count: Book and CD-ROM / 163pp

When Published: 2017

Publisher / Place of Publication: Transport Infrastructure Ireland / Parkgate Business Centre, Parkgate Street, Dublin 8. DO8 DK10

About: This is publication Number 6 in the Transport Infrastructure Ireland Heritage Series. The TII Archaeology & Heritage Section publishes the results of TII-funded archaeological investigations that come about as a result e.g. of motorway planning and construction. This scolarly publication investigates a lost medieval village on the M9 motorway at Mullamast just over the border in neighbouring Co. Kildare. Of note is that the archaeological evidence points to the area being a centre for the breeding of horses for warfare. The accompanying CD-ROM contains technical reports relating to the excavation of the medieval settlement and other sites in Mullamast townland.

ID number(s): 9780993231568

Contents: Contents of CD-ROM – Foreword — Acknowledgements – Introduction — Landscape, setting and context — From Maistiu to manor — Uncovering the medieval village — A medieval stud farm? Trade and subsistence at Mullamast — Medieval villages and the process of desertion – Conclusions – Appendix 1: Radiocarbon dates – Appendix 2: Artefacts catalogue — Bibliography – Index.

Extra #1: Includes dozens of photographs, illustrations and maps.

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #4: Listen to an audiobook related to this title via the Abarta Heritage website

Extra #5: Read an online article ‘The medieval stud farm of royal Mullamast’ via the TII website

Twelfth Collection of Articles on West Wicklow History

© Individual Contributors

Full title: Journal of the West Wicklow Historical Society: Number 12, 2023-24

Creator / Author: West Wicklow Historical Society & contributors, joint editors Chris Lawlor, Declan Keenan

Item Type / Page count: Journal (Complete issue) / 200p

When Published: 2023

Publisher / Place of Publication: West Wicklow Historical Society / Baltinglass (?), Co. Wicklow.

About: This twelveth publication of this biennial journal was launched in the Coimín Centre, Blessington on 9/11/2023. It includes perhaps the most diverse set of topics yet to appear in this journal. Full contents are listed below. The most extensive article in this issue runs to 24 pages. In it, Peter W. Halligan provides an enlightening account of the castles at Oldcourt and Three Castles. 

ID number(s): 0790-1739

Contents: Foreword from the Chairman / Paul Gorry — Donal McDonnell (1945-2022) — Secretary’s Synopsis / Cora Crampton — Noel Lyons (1942-2022) — Editor’s Preface / Chris Lawlor — Mapping the devolved Gaelic territories and districts of the O’Tooles / Declan Keenan — Migrant railway workers and local communities: a case study of Harristown station on the Sallins-Tullow branch line 1883-1951 / John O’Brien — Some observations on the Great famine in County Wicklow, c.1845-1850 / Gerald Cullen — Gentry, Brides and Lions / Maura Murphy Gibson — The man who wore a blue shirt in 1933: the Bass War in West Wicklow and Kildare / Declan O’Connor — A little bit of Bulgaria in Ireland: Pierce O’Mahony (1850-1930): politician and philanthropist / Brian McCabe — Dame Ninette de Valois (Edris Stannus) / Paul Tyrell — A 1792 Rental of the Lordship of Belan, Co. Kildare / Richard B. Lennon —Language Matters Revisited / Ita Roddy — Death from a Flat-Nosed Bullet in Blessington / James Scannell — A farming community: Hollywood in the early twentieth century / John Glennon — Sadhbh O’Byrne – glimpses of a Gaelic woman of sixteenth-century Ireland / Cora Crampton — The Manor of Blessington, created by Michael Boyle / Jim Corley — Revisiting the 1798 Dunlavin massacre for its 225th anniversary / Chris Lawlor — Balfe the Robber / Brendan Corrigan — A sociological interpretation of the Hillfort Capital – exploring Hughstown and Tinoran hillforts (part 1 of 3) / Mairéad Kelly — Charles Maule Drury (1848-1939) – collector of folklore / Paul Gorry — The castles of Oldcourt and Three Castles / Peter W. Halligan — ‘I say it as I think it’ : The life and controversial times of Rev. T. C. O’Connor, Rector of Donoughmore and Donard / Rosemary Raughter — Query / Peter W. Halligan.

Extra #1: Illustrated throughout with black & white photographs and maps.

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide

Extra #4: Visit the West Wicklow Historical Society website

The Prehistoric Landscape Around Rathgall

© The Publisher

Full title: Rathgall – piecing together the mosaic of a later prehistoric landscape

Creator / Author: James O’Driscoll and Katharina Becker

Item Type / Page count: Journal Article / 6p

Journal Information: Archaeology Ireland, Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 30-35

When Published: Winter 2022

Publisher / Place of Publication: Wordwell Ltd. / Unit 9, 78 Furze Road, Sandyford, Dublin 18.

About: An article that summarises the most up-to-date information about what the authors describe as “one of the pre-eminent later prehistoric sites in the country”. The newest archaeological tools and techniques suggest that Rathgall was part of a wider prehistoric landscape and this article sets out to interpret the latest findings.

ID number(s): 0790-892X

Extra #1: includes several colour and b/w photographs.

Extra #2: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #4: Read this article online via JSTOR. [Personal registration / conditions apply]. Alternatively, your local public library may provide free online access to this article.

Eleventh Collection of Articles on West Wicklow History

© Individual Contributors

Full title: Journal of the West Wicklow Historical Society: Number 11, 2021-22

Creator / Author: West Wicklow Historical Society & contributors, joint editors Chris Lawlor, Donal McDonnell

Item Type / Page count: Journal (Complete issue) / 168p

When Published: 2021

Publisher / Place of Publication: West Wicklow Historical Society / Baltinglass (?), Co. Wicklow.

About: This is the eleventh publication of the now biennial journal. It includes a very broad set of topics indeed. Subjects covered include: The O’Tooles in the 16^th century, Ladies’ Day in Punchestown, A Wicklow man in India, The seasonal movement of livestock in the Wicklow mountains, A murder from 1916 and A traditional recipe for oatmeal biscuits, to name but a few. The most extensive article in this issue is by Cora Crampton. Running to 26 pages it tells of John & Jennie Wyse Power, a real-life couple who featured in Joyce’s Ulysses.  

ID number(s): 0790-1739

Contents: Foreword from the Chairman / John A. O’Toole — Ramblings of the Secretary / Donal McDonnell — Editor’s Preface / Chris Lawlor — Ladies’ Day at Punchestown: 150 years of Festival Fashion / Dr. Emma Lyons — The O’Tooles of Imail in the sixteenth-century / Brendan Corrigan — ‘Home Rule is throwing many a shadow now’: Wicklow women, Unionism and the Women’s Declaration of 1912 / Rosemary Raughter — ‘A Celt, A Catholic and a Peasant’- A Wicklow man in India / Andrew Keating — John and Jennie Wyse Power – the real-life couple featured in James Joyce’s Ulysses  / Cora Crampton — The Rev. Ogle Moore of Manor Kilbride / Jim Corley — The beautiful woman in the long red cloak / Ita Roddy — Winter-transhumance routes between the Wicklow Mountains and the surrounding lowlands / John Hussey — Murder Most Foul / Maura Murphy Gibson – Some aspects of County Wicklow’s railway history / James Scannell — Back to Burgage / Niamh McCabe & Brian McCabe — The Irish language influence in West Wicklow placenames / John Glennon — Oatmeal biscuits / Sarah Gillespie — Divided loyalties in Kildare: truce, treaty and drift to Civil War / Michael Murphy —Baltinglass Bridewell and Courthouse [Part Two] / Chris Lawlor.

Extra #1: Illustrated throughout with black & white photographs, maps, drawings and graphs.

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide

Extra #4: Visit the West Wicklow Historical Society website.

IN MEMORIAM Donal McDonnell (Hon. Secretary of WWHS and joint-editor of this journal) R.I.P

History Under Water

© JRSAI

Full title: Two Ringforts Submerged by the Poulaphuca Reservoir

Creator / Author: R. A. S. Macalister

Item Type / Page count: Journal Article / 5pp

Journal Information: Journal of The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Seventh Series, Volume 13 Number 4 pp. 145-149

When Published: December 1943

Publisher / Place of Publication: R.S.A.I / Merrion Square, Dublin

About: This is a short report on two ringforts before they were due to be submerged by the creation of the Poulaphouca Reservoir. One was in Balyknockan and the other in the townland of Burgage More. The author, a professor of Archaeology in UCD, concluded that no serious loss would be incurred by them being underwater.

ID number(s): 0035-9106

Extra #1: Includes plans of both ringforts

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #4: Read this article online via JSTOR. [Personal registration / conditions apply]. Alternatively, your local public library may provide free online access to this article.

All About Our Hilltop Ancestors

© The Publisher
(cover photo James O’Driscoll)

Full title: Hillforts, Warfare and Society in Bronze Age Ireland

Creator / Author: William O’Brien and James O’Driscoll

Item Type / Page count: Book and ebook / 522pp

When Published: 2017

Publisher / Place of Publication: Archaeo Press Publishing / Gordon House, 276 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 7ED

About: This very substantial and highly-illustrated scholarly volume combines  traditional archaeological methods of survey and excavation with modern techniques of remote sensing and GIS (Geographical Informations Systems) landscape analysis to study hillforts in the wider context of warfare and conflict in Ireland during the Bronze Age. Three chapters of the book are specifically dedicated to a detailed landscape study of the Baltinglass Hillfort Complex, which sheds new light on nine individual sites in the area.

ID number(s): 9781784916558 / 9781784916565

Contents: List of Figures – Acknowledgements — Chapter 1: Introduction / William O’Brien — Chapter 2: Prehistoric Hillforts in Ireland and Europe / James O’Driscoll — Chapter 3: Clashanimud Hillfort, Co Cork / William O’Brien — Chapter 4: Other Bronze Age hillforts in Munster/South Leinster / William O’Brien — Chapter 5 [expanded contents]: The Baltinglass Hillfort Landscape of County Wicklow / James O’Driscoll — 5.1: Natural landscape — 5.2: History of research — 5.3: Spinans Hill — 5.4: Kilranlagh — 5.5: Tuckmill Hill — 5.6: Tinoran — 5.7: Hughstown — 5.8: The wider landscape — 5.9: Excavations and finds in the Baltinglass environs — 5.10: Conclusion — Chapter 6 [expanded contents]: The Baltinglass Hillfort Excavations / William O’Brien — 6.1: Spinans Hill 1, Co Wicklow — 6.2: Rathnagree, Co Wicklow — 6.3: Sruhaun, Co Wicklow — 6.4: Tinoran, Co Wicklow — 6.5: Hughstown, Co Kildare — Chapter 7: Chronology / William O’Brien — Chapter 8 [expanded contents]: Modelling the Baltinglass Hillfort Landscape / James O’Driscoll — 8.1: Landscape models for hillfort settlement: a review — 8.2: GIS models of the Baltinglass hillfort landscape –8.3: Modelling hillfort construction at Baltinglass — 8.4: Conclusion — Chapter 9: Hillforts and Warfare in Bronze Age Ireland / William O’Brien — Chapter 10: The Hillfort in Bronze Age Ireland / James O’Driscoll and William O’Brien — Catalogue of Prehistoric Hillforts in Ireland / James O’Driscoll – Bibliography.

Extra #1: Includes over 400 photographs, illustrations and maps.

Extra #2: The cover features a photograph of Brussellstown Ring.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #4: Link to the Publisher’s website

Kippure Mountain – geology, resources and social history [Reblog]

About: This is an entry from the blog of South Dublin Libraries Local Studies which was posted on May 20th, 2020. It relates to a thesis, authored by Geraldine Worth, with the title ‘Kippure Mountain – geology, resources and social history. Kippure straddles the border between Dublin and Wicklow, but its highest point is firmly within Wicklow. The blog helpfully provides links to the full text of the thesis.

South Dublin Libraries Local Studies

To read this thesis please follow the links below.

Part 1 – Kippure Mountain all chapters-p1-p19

Part 2 – Kippure Mountain all chapters-p20-p34

Part 3 – Kippure Mountain all chapters-p35-p63

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Tenth Collection of Articles on West Wicklow History

© WWHS

Full title: Journal of the West Wicklow Historical Society: Number 10, 2019

Creator / Author: West Wicklow Historical Society & contributors, joint editors Chris Lawlor, Donal McDonnell

Item Type / Page count: Journal (Complete issue) / 312p

When Published: 2019

Publisher / Place of Publication: West Wicklow Historical Society / Baltinglass (?), Co. Wicklow.

About: This tenth publication of a set of articles on aspects of West Wicklow history is a bumper edition running to a highest-ever total of 312 pages. A diverse range of articles stretch from the Neolithic period to modern times. The areas covered include Baltinglass, Baltyboys, Blessington, Burgage and Glen of Imaal. East Wicklow also gets a look-in as does neighbouring parts of Carlow and Kildare. The most extensive article in this issue is by Kevin Lee which looks at nineteenth-century emigration from the Coolattin district to Canada.

ID number(s): 0790-1739

Contents: Foreword from the Chairman / John A. O’Toole — Ramblings of the Secretary / Donal McDonnell — Editor’s Preface / Chris Lawlor — Archaeological excavations on Baltinglass Hill: an update / Alan Hawkes — Guests of the Crown: Wicklow men in the Curragh internment camps, 1921 / James Durney — Silk manufacturing in Rathmore, County Kildare (1784-1786) / James Robinson — Preaching the suffrage gospel in County Wicklow: a local perspective on the women’s suffrage campaign, 1908-1918 / Rosemary Raughter —Ballymore Eustace woollen mills / Jim Corley — Cecil Frances Alexander and her connection to County Wicklow / Sarah Gillespie — County Kildare during the War of Independence, 1919-1921 / Michael Murphy — Language matters: the importance of Irish in local place-name lore / Ita Roddy — Shops around the Blessington Lake / Séamus Balfe — Flax growing and linen weaving in Imaal in the 1820s / John Hussey — Book Review: John Hussey’s The Quakers of Baltyboys, County Wicklow – 1678 to 1800s / Jim Corley – The land for the people / Joe McArdle — The Boyestowne Lordship: Baltyboys, Tulfarris & Humphreystown 1650-1850 [Part Two] / Brendan Corrigan — William Dargan and the Dublin and Wicklow railway / Andrew Keating — Aspects of life in County Wicklow during the Emergency / James Scannell — Collapse at Burgage / Brian McCabe — ‘He regarded their interests and his own as interwoven’: the impact of the 1903 Wyndham Land Act on the Mansfields of Morristown Lattin, 1903-1929 / Evan Comerford — A listing of some people living on the Baltinglass Estate of the Earl of Aldborough, 1767-1794 / Richard B. Lennon — Macra na Feirme and the origin of secondary education in West Wicklow / P.J. Hanlon — Nineteenth-century emigration from South Wicklow: from Coollattin to Canada / Kevin Lee — Did you ever dance to these bands in Blessington or Manor Kilbride 1971-1973? / Declan O’Connor — Goodbye to Fortgranite, a much-loved family home / Mark Shirley-Beavan — Mullaghmast – early monuments and mythologies / Cora Crampton — Rathvilly Church of Ireland memorial inscriptions from the church and churchyard / Paul Gorry — Baltinglass Bridewell and Courthouse [Part One] / Chris Lawlor — Book Review: Chris Lawlor’s ‘With Much Quiet Fervour’: a brief history of Dunlavin Roman Catholic parish and St. Nicholas of Myra church / Cróna Cassidy.

Extra #1: Illustrated throughout with black & white photographs, maps, drawings and graphs.

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide

Extra #4: Visit the West Wicklow Historical Society website.

Ninth Collection of Articles on West Wicklow History

© WWHS

Full title: Journal of the West Wicklow Historical Society: Number 9, 2017

Creator / Author: West Wicklow Historical Society & contributors, joint editors Chris Lawlor, Donal McDonnell

Item Type / Page count: Journal (Complete issue) / 170p

When Published: 2017

Publisher / Place of Publication: West Wicklow Historical Society / Baltinglass (?), Co. Wicklow.

About: This ninth publication of a set of articles on aspects of West Wicklow history is the most substantial yet with articles of the highest quality. A diverse range of topics is covered from medieval stone lamps and sheep wash-holes to the Plymouth Brethren and railway accidents. The most extensive article in this issue is by Chris Lawlor which looks at the impact of the Civil War on ordinary citizens as reflected in compensation claim records. Overall this publication makes a most appealing Christmas stocking-filler for anyone interested in West Wicklow history.

ID number(s): 0790-1739

Contents: Foreword from the Chairman / John A. O’Toole — Ramblings of the Secretary / Donal McDonnell — Editor’s Preface / Chris Lawlor — Archaeological excavation on Baltinglass Hill – Lathaleere – the evolution of a place-name / Paul Gorry — Death in the Glen of Imaal – 16^th September 1941 / James Scannell — The Plymouth Brethren and the Baltinglass connection / Cora Crampton – The Boyestowne Lordship: Baltyboys, Tulfarris & Humphreystown 1650-1850 [Part One] / Brendan Corrigan — County Wicklow Grand Jury 1793 – William Hanbidge’s recollections of wool-weaving in the 1820’s / John Hussey — A light into medieval Ireland: some thoughts on cresset-stones and a previously undocumented example from Newry townland, southwest Wicklow / Lorcan Harney — Denis Gavin and Ellen Murphy: early Queensland pioneers / Pauleen Cass — Odd fish in West Wicklow / Christopher Moriarty — Sheep wash-holes in West Wicklow / Seamus Balfe and John Hussey — A fatal accident on the Dublin & Blessington tram line in 1912 / James Scannell — Ernest Molyneux of The Decoy / Tom Molyneux – Tuckmills in West Wicklow / John Hussey — Trouble with the points / James Scannell – Three men and a (little) mountain / Brian McCabe – Raids, requisitions and recompense: the Civil War’s impact on West Wicklow, 1922-3 / Chris Lawlor – Review: Brendan Corrigan’s The History of Hollywood Co Wicklow / John Glennon.

Extra #1: Illustrated throughout with black & white photographs, maps, drawings and graphs.

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide

Extra #4: Visit the West Wicklow Historical Society website.