Sir, – Those interested in the history and archaeology of Belfast, now commemorating 400 years since the granting of its civic charter, were poorly served by Marianne Elliott’s review of Belfast 400: People, Place and History, edited by SJ Connolly, (Weekend Review, January 5th). Elliott asserted that “there is no single book on Belfast archaeology and there have only been insignificant modern excavations”. This is untrue.
In 2011, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, Belfast City Council, and Tandem published Ruairí Ó Baoill’s Hidden History Below our Feet: The Archaeological Story of Belfast. This volume summarises and synthesises the results of nearly 100 licensed excavations within the city that have collectively revealed the story of human settlement stretching back 9,000 years. With its accessible text and full colour throughout, the volume has been well received and widely reviewed. Far from being ignored in favour of a Plantation-centric narrative, as implied by Elliott, the pre-Plantation roots of Belfast have been the focus of concerted investigations over the last decade, as those of us practising locally are keenly aware of the contemporary relevance of knowledge about the full human history of the settlement in the context of the charter commemorations. – Yours, etc,