Review: Clonmac's bridge
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 7, 2014
I wanted to like CLONMAC'S BRIDGE more than I did like it.First we meet an archaeology professor called Griffin Clonmac who's spent five years researching a Dark Ages bridge over the Shannon. So I expected that he was in Ireland. No, because he complains about the cost of travelling to Ireland, though we later see him crossing the Atlantic a couple of times a week.  He considers getting funding from the British Broadcasting Corporation, so I thought he must be in Britain. Many pages in this man finally introduces himself to someone as being from the University of Virginia. Now how were we supposed to know that? And why didn't he approach the Irish broadcasters RTE, TV3, TG4 for funding?  Why not send out a general press release, or co-operate with an Irish university to share funding and expertise?  Archaeology students often have to work for free to get the experience.The story takes a long time to get moving with academic rivalry, permits, officials, funds, Church seniors, a plain weird journalist and unexplained hindrances. We follow a trail around many universities and archives, rather than excavating; the action is continually stuck in arguments and personality clashes.A couple of trial dives in the Shannon provide some action, tension and potential for murderous sabotage. Unfortunately then we're off to some more offices.  I can't believe that a body was undiscovered and unsearched for in the Shannon; there are search dogs trained to find the scent of a body underwater and the Gardai have a sub-aqua team, plus local divers would come out and help. Yet the site is entirely quiet a week later when Clonmac returns.We go back in time to see the architect, a monk called Riordan from Clonmacnoise Monastery nearby, reading folios on Spanish and Roman bridges and getting building started, which I enjoyed.Maybe the whole point of this book was the trek around permits and funding, which should have been arranged in better time as digs only occur during summer. My mistake for thinking it would be about discovering and excavating a medieval bridge on a monastic site. 250 pages in the story is still mired in arguments. I also saw as pointless the introduction of a Peruvian politician.  His daughter Marie Quispe is working with Clonmac, which is fine, but this perhaps good portrait of a Peruvian patriarch could well have been left to another book as these chapters did not move the plot forward and just padded out the story with extraneous material.Overall there are good points, the medieval section is strong; but the concept is good and characters interesting enough that I really felt the book should have been better and could do with tighter editing, more action and less arguing.