Bricks, steel and a lot of Concrete: The Defence Heritage resurvey of Northern Ireland
Channel: The Ulster Archaeological Society
Date: 31/05/2022

The Defence Heritage Project begun in the late 1990s laid the foundations for our knowledge of the archaeology of modern conflict in the north, but it could only take us so far. A systematic survey was needed and another look given to the archaeology of WW1, WW2 the Cold War and even the troubles to see just what is left, what condition it is in and what can be done to manage its future. Funded by Historic Environment Division, the resurvey carried out over two years by Dr James O’Neill sheds new light on the resource. Looking in detail at the airfields, defence lines and military architecture and archaeology of the 20th century, the number of known defence features has risen from 738 to almost 4,000 and that number is still growing. This talk will give a taste of what has been found, and highlight the challenges presenting in assuring the future this modern but surprisingly fragile archaeology.

James worked in archaeology in Northern Ireland for 16 years, where he specialised in battlefield archaeology and twentieth century defence heritage. In 2008 he jumped ship to the join the history fraternity at Queens University Belfast in 2008. His doctoral research focused on the military aspects of the Nine Years War, also known as Tyrone’s Rebellion. During a two-year fellowship in University College Cork, he rewrote this work into a monograph titled The Nine Years War 1593-1603: O’Neill, Mountjoy and the Military Revolution, which was published in 2017. Since then, he has worked as a heritage consultant for public and private bodies across Ireland, and was appointed to the Historic Monuments Council in 2019. His most recent project has been working with Historic Environment Division to resurvey Defence Heritage archaeology across N. Ireland.