Skeletal remains from a medieval graveyard in the Dingle peninsula in west Kerry will continue to be washed up on tourist beaches in the area, unless €1 million is spent on coastal protection works, a report has found.
A further €1 million is needed to excavate the site in a shifting dune area of Smerwick Harbour. Locals believe hundreds of Spanish, Italian and Irish victims of the 1580 English siege and massacre at Smerwick Harbour are buried there.
Once a month or so Kerry county archaeologist, Mr Michael Connolly, walks the beaches at Béal Bán and Wine Strand after high tide to collect the bones that are regularly washed out of Teampall Bán. The site may be attached to the medieval churchyard of Caherquin.
He suspects it is not erosion alone that is causing the disturbance of the skeletons. Amateur archaeologists may also be digging the sand.
Bones from the site began appearing in the 1930s but have increased in volume since the mid-1990s. Locals and visitors regularly come across bones, including skulls, frequently handing them into local gardaí.
"From a purely academic perspective" Teampall Bán is of little archaeological value, Mr Connolly concluded in a recent report on the graveyard.
There is however a question of ethics and what is morally correct, he concluded.
Hundreds of medieval burial sites have been excavated in the past 10 years alone, Mr Connolly said.
While Teampall Bán was of local interest, it would be unlikely to reveal anything of national importance about the late medieval period.
Skeletal remains are classified as artefacts under the National Monuments Acts and Cultural Institutions Act and come under the remit of the National Museum of Ireland. However, the National Museum believes the responsibility for the site rests with Dúchas, which says it is unable to fund an excavation.
In the absence of financial help from Dúchas or Kerry County Council, Mr Connolly says the best way forward is to continue to monitor the area closely and to deposit the bones with Kerry County Museum, the only designated repository for artifacts in the county.
Local councillor Mr Séamus Cosaí Fitzgerald (FG) has rejected the advice. A committee has been formed in recent weeks and he has called for coastal protection and excavation works to be carried out.
"The council is not prioritising Teampall Bán for coastal protection. They regard Inch or Rossbeigh (popular tourist beaches in Kerry) as of far higher importance. What is happening is a crying shame and locals are deeply upset about it," Mr Fitz- gerald said.
Coastal protection works should be undertaken "out of a sense of decency alone", he added.