When asked about the path that lead him to archaeology, Dr Michael Ryan, director of the Chester Beatty Library and a career archaeologist since his college days, assumes an expression of complete surprise. "I can't remember a time when I didn't want to be an archaeologist. It's what I always wanted to be." A few seconds later he adds: "It may have had something to do with my mother. She is a former teacher and she was always interested in history, languages, everything. And I've always been fascinated by history, and the way people live. Archaeology is the record of this." In appearance, he resembles the standard European intellectual, complete with sweeping gestures of mock despair. His desk is always a mess but he is an organised thinker.
Serious looking and bearded, he is brisk, sharp-witted and possesses the cool efficiency of a heart surgeon on the trail of a leaky valve. Beyond the cleverness and the unnerving logic there is also a saving subversive streak and more imagination than most. He says he didn't really play rugby until he was in his 20s but then played on until he was 42 "and it was no longer dignified." The youngest of seven he was born in 1947 and grew up in Skerries where he still lives and is quick to point out, "I am not a Dublin man, I'm from Skerries and that is quite a different thing." I see.
During the past year the Irish public has enjoyed the success of the Chester Beatty Library in its new home in the refurbished and extended Clock Tower at Dublin Castle. It is a sophisticated, elegant and above all suitably atmospheric setting. The galleries are dramatic. For the first time Sir Chester's splendid gift, his eclectic, exotic oriental collection has been showcased as the marvel it is, an international treasure given to a nation which aside from rare book bindings does not feature in it. "American generosity gave Ireland something which came from somewhere else" he says and with characteristic Ryan exactness, adds, "this past year's success was not a new, or easy thing. It took nine long years of hard work. I'm very proud of the Chester Beatty Library, particularly the Sacred Galleries." After almost 50 years, Ireland, it appears, has finally discovered a treasure that was given, not sought.
In 1991 Ryan was seconded to the Chester Beatty Library from the National Museum of which he had been Keeper of Irish Antiquities since 1979. At the time it was thought Ryan would be involved in setting up the galleries, themselves a highly complex construction project costing about £5.5 million. The collection's move from its home of more than 40 years at Shrewsbury Road was highly complicated. After Beatty shipped his treasures from his former London home in 1950, he set about building a purpose-built gallery that was opened in 1954. On his death, 14 years later, the collection became the property of the Irish nation. Its location however proved a problem. Many tourists passed through without ever making the short journey out to Ballsbridge to view what is an international collection assembled more for beauty and by curiosity rather than for an educational purpose. The location issue was recognised and a move was planned.
No one could dispute the magnificence of the galleries by day, nor the impressive sight as it is viewed from the exterior of the Clock Tower building on a frosty winter's evening and considered within the context of the Dublin Castle complex, parts of which date from 1204. Of course Ryan, Director and Librarian of the Gallery since 1995, is looking pleased but the fact remains: here is an early Irish archaeologist with a particular interest in medieval Irish metalwork. His most recent publication Early Irish Communion Ves- sels - part of the Irish Treasure Series which he edits - makes clear that his Chester Beatty years have not overshadowed his interest in his own field. Don't forget Ryan is the editor of Irish Archaeology Illustrated (Country House, 1991), written by a fine team.
Continually in print, it is possibly the best-presented general survey study on the subject available. Every schoolchild in the country should be given a copy. Ryan is also Secretary of the Committee of Polite Literature and Antiquities of the Royal Irish Academy. Is his current administrative role frustrating? "No I enjoy administration and when I was Keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National Museum, administration was a big part of the job." On graduating from University College Dublin, Ryan taught for a year at University College Galway before joining the staff of the National Museum in 1970 "on the 1st of September 1970 - like any good civil servant I always remember dates."
Archaeologists could be divided into two broad groups, excavators and what Ryan calls "objects men" among whom he counts himself: "Excavations are very interesting and demanding. You're out in the field and indeed there are some archaeologists who feel that unless you are out in the field digging in the mud, you're not really an archaeologist. I have to say I'm more drawn to objects. When I was with the National Museum we did a lot of excavations, but most of it was rescue work rather than excavation by choice."
One such rescue operation in 1977 proved very exciting. "We were called out to look at a medieval road that had been uncovered by Bord Na Mona workers in a bog at Co Offaly." The site at Lough Boora concealed by the raised bog held far more. It told the story of a settlement at the centre of Ireland. Traces of Ireland's earliest settlers, the hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic period were discovered. Chert artifacts and ground-pebble axes, the burnt bones of animals, fish and birds as well as charred hazelnuts suggested a large campsite had existed between 7000 - 6000BC on the shores of what would have been an ancient lake. The Mesolithic peoples are known to have favoured river banks, lake margins and islands as well as the coast for their settlement sites.
Three years after the discoveries at Boora, the National Museum staff were informed of an even more dramatic find at a monastic site in Co Tipperary - the Derrynaflan Hoard. The collection of ecclesiastical metalwork which appeared to have been deliberated hidden rather than abandoned, included a magnificent 9th century silver chalice decorated with silver filigree, cast gilt-bronze and amber ornaments and a paten dating from the late 8th century, of hammered silver. The objects were covered and protected by a large bronze basin. Much of the initial excitement about the discovery was tempered by lengthy litigation surrounding the nature of its finding. Ryan groans on, recalling the five and a half year legal battle which culminated with the Supreme Court declaring the Hoard to be Treasure Trove in the ownership of the state. He refuses to make any judgement on the rights or wrongs of finders in such controversies. "It's too easy to be righteous in these situations," he cautions.
It was a demanding time and distracted Ryan from working on his doctorate, which he eventually completed under the late Frank Mitchell, a daring polymath of unusual genius. From early in his career, Ryan had a rapport with Mitchell and would be approached when Mitchell decided to update his classic multidisciplinary study Reading the Irish Landscape for its third edition. "Frank looked for a collaborator and he got his publisher and supporter Treasa Coady to sound me out before he would approach me directly - there was a delicacy about this line of attack which gave me a potential "out" before I was asked in earnest. I thought about it for about a minute and I realised that, in common with many other people, I could not refuse Mitchell anything within reason.
I thought the project would take a few months; it took over two years, and several times Frank insisted that we draw a line and admit no new material. We even signed a copy of the calendar at one point setting a real deadline. Of course, up to the last minute new and interesting things just kept on getting added by Frank."
The writing of that third edition of Reading the Irish Landscape would produce on publication in March 1997 probably the finest and most complete book about this country yet written, largely because it drew on Mitchell's remarkable range and overview. Their collaboration worked well. As Mitchell said at that time; "Michael beefed up the archaeology and filled in the gaps." Ryan recalls Mitchell's deciding they take "joint responsibility for everything in the text." They both enjoyed the freedom of working together.
Mitchell had his pet theories, many of which were brilliantly showcased in his highly original essay "Where Did Ireland Come From?" (1994) taking the reader through 17 billion years of Irish geological development. Ryan admits to having several archaeological hobbyhorses of his own, particularly in relation to the nature of the early Irish Church - which he sees as far less isolated than its monastic image suggests. He expounds this in Early Irish Communion Vessels.
Mitchell, whom he says he "misses hugely" was very important to him. Did he have other mentor figures? "Not so much mentors" and in reply to any archaeologists he particularly admires he shrugs, "it is difficulty to answer that, a lot of them are still alive." He does mention Sean O Nuallain. Of the late Liam de Paor he says: "I thought the world of him." There are some inspirational figures still at work but as with most archaeologists, Ryan's face lights up at the mention of the remarkable 19th century gentlemen pioneers such as George Petrie (1790-1866) and William Wilde (1815-1876).
Wilde is a particular interest of Ryan's. "He was an original and while he was not overly open to new ideas, he was a great collector of data." His Catalogue of the Contents of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy was a major development in the history of Irish archaeology. Wilde had some 10,000 artifacts to describe and soon saw the limitations of the original plan to use a chronological method and opted to classify according to use. "He was very human, and I mean human," laughs Ryan of the colourful Wilde senior. "I hope to write a biography about him. There is a lot of material. I would hope to be laconic rather than sensationalist."
Of plans for the Chester Beatty Library, he says, "I would like to increase our Judaic collection."
What is so special about archaeology? "It is the way we find out about ourselves. What we are, what we came from. It is exciting. It is also humbling. I feel such a bond of human sympathy when a capstone is lifted, and suddenly you are faced with the remains of a person who has lain undisturbed in a grave with a bowl for his food, for 4,000 years."
