Should the archaeological remains at Carrickmines Castle be protected against the encroaching M50? Or will they one day inspire the same guilt as Wood Quay, asks Paul Cullen.
The fate of Carrickmines Castle is one of those Celtic Tiger moments, when the drive for progress crashes headlong into the demands of the past. The generation that once protested or agonised over the destruction of Wood Quay, now comfortably installed in the driving seat of society, faces a similar decision. Do they insist that a major infrastructural building project must go ahead, because it would cost too much time and effort to stop it? Or do they say that the past is more important and must be preserved, whatever practical difficulties this creates? Or is there a "third way", which would allow for the preservation of the archaeological remains of Carrickmines Castle, while also permitting the completion of the M50 motorway around Dublin?
Just now, the first course is being pursued and the heavy machinery of the road-builders is moving ever closer to the site. Perhaps in a decade's time motorists will pass through the area with the same feeling of guilt and anger felt by so many at the erection of the Civic Offices on Wood Quay's medieval remains.
If you want to see the mingling of muck and money and history in modern Ireland, there is no better place to look than Carrickmines. Here you'll find the last expanses of farmland in this part of south Co Dublin, which also happens to be the richest part of the county. Luxury one-off housing dots the hillside, while upmarket developments are spreading up from the coast. Their occupants drive top-of-the range Mercedes and BMWs along narrow country lanes strewn with muck from the trucks of the road-builders.
Looking east from the castle site are the pasture lands and turnip fields owned by Jackson Way, the controversial English company under investigation by the Flood tribunal. They don't look much, but the company claims that the 20 acres of land being compulsorily acquired for the motorway are worth €47 million. If that sounds a lot, remember it was originally looking for €116 million in compensation.
And in the middle of all this lies Carrickmines Castle, a jumble of stones and ditches and fragmentary features. The remains of the castle itself haven't been discovered - though they could lie below the earth's surface - but the extent of the surrounding settlements is far greater than anyone had imagined. What was once thought to cover one or two acres is now known to extend over eight acres, most of it earmarked for road-building.
The site comprises two large enclosures, one of them defined by an impressive-looking revetted fosse, or stone-lined ditch. The second enclosure is more rounded and is cut into the bedrock in some places. A local stream has been harnessed to add to the defensive capabilities of the fosses.
Both enclosures are filled with the remains of buildings of all shapes and sizes. They were probably houses and workshops, though some may have served as kilns or wells.
The only upstanding structure is a small, ivy-clad gatehouse. For the rest, you have to use your imagination to picture how this settlement must have looked like five centuries ago and more. Unless, of course, there is more to be found under the ground.
"This place is like a Pompeii, a Roman forum, but they don't want to know," says Dominic Dunne, one of the three "Carrickminders" occupying the site when I visited last Thursday. Dunne is a veteran of the Glen of the Downs protest ("look for a guy that looks like Fidel Castro," I was told) and is inured to the discomforts and long waits involved in such protests. It was five below zero last night, but at least this time he has a roof over his head, even if there is no heating and the door is made of plastic tarpaulin.
Daire O'Rourke, archaeologist with the National Roads Authority, dismisses the Pompeii comparison. "Some defensive elements are well-preserved, but other than that, the remains are organic [i.e. earth]. People are going to come and ask: 'Where's the castle?' I believe in preservation, but not for preservation's sake."
As far as O'Rourke is concerned, the NRA is caught in "a cleft stick". "We were building a road, we needed to excavate, and that revealed extensive remains. If someone was building a house here, the full extent would probably never have been known." After all, she points out, "what developer would spend what we did on an excavation - €6 million over two years, employing 200 people?".
Carrickmines has caused all kinds of splits. An Taisce's head office has called for the motorway to be rerouted but its local association declares itself happy with the adjustments announced by the Minister for Transport, Séamus Brennan, last month. Local Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrat politicians have disagreed with their Government's decision.
The Minister's solution is a mixture of preservation, tweaking, burial and long- fingered promise. The Glenamuck Road roundabout feeding onto the motorway at Carrickmines will be raised and "tilted" to preserve some archaeological features. Some 50 metres of the fosse will be retained under the roundabout and two medieval structures will be retained adjacent to the motorway.
Then there are the promises to rebuild parts of the fosse elsewhere and to set up an archaeological heritage park. If these sound familiar, it is because similar promises were made when Wood Quay was destroyed. Remember the underground museum that never materialised? In any case, why would anyone want to visit an interpretive centre here, when most of the sights are either somewhere else, underground or right next to a busy motorway?
Even the Minister was moved to declare that he was "uncomfortable about it", but he proceeded to give the go-ahead to the motorway anyway. And An Taisce's South County Dublin Association agreed, saying "half a loaf is better than no loaf at all".
One big difference between Wood Quay and Carrickmines is that everyone agrees that the motorway should be built. As the last leg of the C-ring around Dublin, it offers the prospect of relieving the capital's chronic traffic problems by serving as a bypass for the city.
Just like in medieval days, Carrickmines lies at a narrow "pinch-point" between the steeply rising ground above and the city settlements below. But any discussion about why the motorway ended up passing through this site quickly leads to the murkier byroads of political and planning intrigue.
The circumstances in which much of the land in these parts changed hands or was re-zoned is about to be investigated by the Flood tribunal. In this atmosphere, the allegations have been flying about.
The "Carrickminders" claim that a different route, which would have missed the castle, was originally considered by Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council. Then the route was changed to the present proposal; as O'Rourke points out, the local An Taisce branch supported this in 1994. This also bisects Jackson Way's land, and so led to that company's massive claim for compensation (far greater than the Minister's estimate of how much it would cost to reroute the road).
The council and the NRA deny this claim. Three routes were originally considered, they say, and the present route was selected on environmental, economic and archaeological grounds. The other routes would have interfered with other prominent archaeological sites in the area.
The road's opponents also question why the Glenamuck Road roundabout is so large, and why it exists at all. One of its acknowledged functions will be to serve the Jackson Way lands, which have no other access at the moment. With time running out, as the new motorway inches ever closer, the "Carrickminders" have suggested that the route could be altered slightly to the north to take it away from the castle. But as O'Rourke points out, this area hasn't been excavated: "We could be going from the frying-pan into the fire. And I doubt if the people living in the houses nearby would be all that impressed."
But like so many other Irish problems, the issue could end up being decided in Brussels. The European Commission has been asked to intervene. Given that it's paying so many of the bills, it might just do that.
So what is Carrickmines Castle? It was built in south Co Dublin as a fortified site sometime before the late 13th century, probably to protect the occupants of the Pale from Irish invaders based in the Wicklow mountains. Historians believe it was attacked and burned out during the rebellions of the 1640s. Since then, it has just been a dot on the map.
Why the big fuss about it now? The south-eastern motorway, which is under construction, is due to pass through the site of the castle. Before construction got under way, archaeologists excavated the site and found much more than they expected. A two-year dig uncovered tens of thousands of artefacts - pottery, cannonballs, coins - and the remains of settlements around the castle. Excavations are still continuing but the Minister for Transport, Séamus Brennan, has decided the motorway has to go ahead.
So it's "bye-bye castle"? It depends on what side of the argument you're on. Brennan says adjustments have been made that will save 60 per cent of the site.
Opponents, including conservationists, medieval historians and eco-warriors, say that up to 80 per cent will be lost. They've proposed that the road be "bent" around the site, but the authorities say this can't be done.
So that's the end of it then? Not quite. The site is being occupied by a group of protesters who call themselves "Carrickminders". They have vowed to block any attempt to interfere with the archaeological remains. In addition, the circumstances behind the routing of the motorway through the area are the subject of three separate inquiries or investigations by An Bord Pleanála, the European Commission and the European Parliament. If any of these were to succeed, they could result in the motorway being stalled or rerouted.
I think I'd like to check this out myself. A good idea. You can get to the site on the 63 bus or by car to the junction of the Ballyogan and Glenamuck roads. You'll see the banners and information panels of the "Carrickminders", who have made their base in the abandoned farmhouse on the site of the castle. In addition, a forum on Carrickmines, open to the public and with a variety of academic speakers, is taking place today, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the Walton Theatre in Trinity College Dublin.