Secrets of the Deep
The Underwater Cultural History of West Cork
by
Julianna O'Donoghue and Connie Kelleher
in The Parish Centre, Clonakilty
on Thursday Mar 28th 2019 at 8 pm
With the second longest coastline in Ireland, the County of Cork has borne witness to extensive maritime activity throughout time. The preponderance of shipping that passed by or utilised the many ports, harbours and hidden havens along its jagged coastal edge has left its cultural mark in the form of shipwrecks on the seabed. The record for the large quantity of wrecks off Cork's coast is growing all the time as new discoveries are made. The talk will begin by providing an overview of this underwater cultural heritage and how underwater archaeology is identifying, surveying, recording and preserving this finite resource, including detailing the legal requirements that are in place to protect these important wreck sites. It will then focus on a time when piracy and smuggling was in its heyday along the southwest coast, in the early part of the seventeenth century, and provide evidence from two shipwreck sites that may have possible direct links to a time that is only recently revealing its secrets.
Underwater archaeologist Julianna O'Donoghue is director of Mizen Archaeology Ltd., based in Clonakilty in West Cork. Mizen has undertaken a multitude of high profile underwater archaeological surveys and excavations, and has made several important underwater archaeological discoveries. These include the 17th-century Colla Wreck located off Leamcon near Schull in West Cork that could be the possible remains of one of Dutch pirate Captain Claus Campaen's prizes from 1625.
Dr Connie Kelleher is a member of the Underwater Archaeology Unit (UAU), National Monuments Service in the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. As part of her work she has carried out several shipwreck excavations that has included the remains of a Spanish Armada wreck, a 17th-century possible Cromwellian flagship and a wreck in Dunworley Bay in West Cork that could be directly associated with the Algerine raid on Baltimore in 1631.
A.G.M on Tuesday 19th February
The annual general meeting of Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage will take place on Tuesday February 19th at 8pm in O'Donovan's Hotel. All are welcome.
Members are invited to put forward motions for discussion at the AGM, to be submitted by Friday 15th. Membership (€10) for 2019 can be paid on the night of the AGM, if you haven't previously done so
Clonakilty 1918 Election lecture
Clonakilty 1918 Election lecture
PHOTO: Dr. Aodh Quinlivan, Dept. Local Government and Politics, UCC, (centre), who delivered an illustrated lecture entitled “A Crucial Moment in Irish History? Cork Stories behind the 1918 General Election”, recently at the Parish Centre at the invitation of Dúchas Clonakilty Heritage, with members of the committee: Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin; Marian O’ Leary; John Hayes; Fachtna McCarthy; Rachael Cronin and Tim Feen. (Photo: Emmanuelle Schon-Quinlivan).