Heritage Week 2025 Projects and Events
Heritage Week 2025 has several events where the results of TII archaeological and heritage works are being featured, as well as events where TII Archaeologists will be presenting papers.
Saturday 16 August to Saturday 23 August
Heritage sites and the landscapes - Macroom Library public display
This public display, by Cork County Council, focuses on four important cultural heritage sites in the immediate vicinity of the new N22 Baile Bhuirne to Macroom road. It includes site descriptions and a record of their topographical and landscape characteristics as pertained prior to the new N22 road development. The four heritage sites are: the War of Independence ambush site at Cúil na Cathrach, Carrigaphooca Castle and curtilage, the stone circle at Carrigaphooca, and the Civil War engagement at Carrigaphooca.
Library opening times: 9:30 to 17:30, Tuesdays to Saturdays. Please note that this display will be at Macroom Library throughout the month of August.
Saturday 16 August (13:00 to 17:00) and Sunday 17 August (10:00 to 17:00)
Áonach na nDéise - Woodstown Viking Festival
Viking Festival at Woodstown on the Waterford Greenway at Carriganore. This free family event will feature battle re-enactments, a living history and craft village showcasing activities such as spinning, weaving, cooking, trade and witchcraft, and a games area with archaeology activities for children.
This event has been organised by Déise Medieval, in collaboration with Waterford City and County Council, and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, and supported by the National Museum of Ireland, TVAS Archaeology, the Discovery Programme, and SETU.
For further information contact: bguest@waterfordcouncil.ie
Tuesday 19 August (18:30 to 19:30 and 20:00 to 21:00)
Pillboxes of the Shannon Estuary – guided visit led by Tom Cassidy (FOLA Archaeology & Heritage Services)
Learn about the World War II defenses of the Shannon Estuary on this guided walk-and-talk to two concrete pillboxes (or blockhouses) in Mulderricksfield, Askeaton, Co. Limerick, on the Foynes to Limerick (including Adare Bypass) Road Project. Tom will describe the pillboxes, including their siting, construction and military function, and outline why such an extensive network of these structures was built along the Shannon Estuary.
This event has been organised by Archaeological Management Solutions, in collaboration with Limerick City and County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland.
Further information on this event is available here.
Wednesday 20 August (10:00 to 11:00, 12:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 15:00)
Visit to an Archaeological Excavation on the Foynes to Limerick (including Adare Bypass) Road Project
See archaeological excavation in action on this guided tour of an early medieval enclosure in Rincullia, Robertstown, Co. Limerick, which is currently being excavated as part of the Foynes to Limerick (including Adare Bypass) Road Project. This will be an opportunity to meet the archaeologists involved and to see some of the interesting artefacts discovered on the project.
This event has been organised by Archaeological Management Solutions, in collaboration with Limerick City and County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland.
Further information on this event is available here.
Thursday 21 August
Foundations: TII Heritage Week Seminar 2025
This year's TII Heritage Week Seminar will take place on Thursday, 21 August, at the Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2, D02 HH58.
For this year's seminar, we have a fantastic range of speakers who will be discussing the archaeology of several periods from the Neolithic to the Emergency era. There will be numerous papers relating to the archaeological work currently taking place on the Limerick to Foynes road scheme, and a particular highlight will be a paper on the wonderful Ardshanbally Brooch-Pin that is currently on display in the Words on the Wave: Ireland and St. Gallen in Early Medieval Ireland.
A temporary pop-up exhibition, produced in 2024 in partnership with Dublin Cemeteries Trust, will also be on display. The exhibition marks TIIs reinterment of over 1,600 victims of the 1832 Cholera Pandemic, excavated during Luas Cross City works (Click here for more information).
We are delighted to welcome early career archaeologists who participated in our AYIA@TII Heritage Week 2025 call for papers and will participate in Session 2, which we organised in collaboration with the Association of Young Irish Archaeologists.
Please note that images of human remains may be displayed during the seminar.
Click here to book a place at the seminar via Eventbrite.
Doors open: 09:00
Registration and Tea/Coffee: 09:00 to 09:40
Session 1: 09:50 to 11:20 (followed by tea/coffee)
- Trade goods and manufacturing in the 13th-century Norman borough of Claregalway, Co. Galway
- Muireann Ní Cheallacháin, IAC
- The Forgotten Defenders - pillboxes of the Shannon Estuary
- Bryn Coldrick, AMS
- Fuel for Thought: Irish burnt mounds as an underappreciated resource for wood charcoal studies
- Bruce Sutton, independent researcher
Session 2: 11:50 to 13:10 (followed by a light lunch)
- A Review of Non-Violence Related Trauma During the Medieval Period in the Irish Archaeological Record
- Rhianna Hawke, independent researcher
- A Journey through Sligo in the Early Neolithic
- Maoilíosa Kiely, independent researcher
- Bronze Age Upland Settlement Dynamics in Ireland: considering climate impacts on settlement patterns
- Cherie Edwards, independent researcher
Session 3: 14:00 to 15:20 (followed by tea/coffee)
- Thermal Insights: thermal imaging and its practical applications for archaeological excavations
- Liamóg Roche and Seán Tiffin, AMS
- In Search of Meaning: the Ardshanbally brooch-pin
- John Channing, AMS and Róisín Nic Cnáimhín, NMI
Each session will include time for questions and answers.
Following the close of seminar, TII has arranged a visit to the National Museum of Ireland's Words on the Wave exhibition. This visit is fully booked, however, you can add your name to the waiting listing on the registration form in case spaces become free.
Please note it is a five-minute walk to Kildare Street, and the exhibition has restricted accessibility. There is a ramp to the right-hand side of the Museum entrance and at the back of the ground floor there stairs up to the exhibition on the upper floor.The stairs comprise of 7 steps, then a small landing, 14 steps, then another small landing, 7 steps, then another small landing, then there are 4 steps onto the main landing. You will then enter the balcony area and turn right, there are a further 7 steps up here. At the end, in front of you is the ‘Words on the Wave’ entrance, and there are 8 wooden stairs down into the exhibition space itself.
The Museum has a Step-Free access arrangement in place with the Houses of Oireachtas, to provide lift access, this is at specific times on Monday afternoons or Fridays to the Exhibition, for visitors who use wheelchairs or have physical access requirements. This needs to be booked in advance and more information about this arrangement can be found on the museum website here.
Registration is in accordance with T&C TII Archaeology and Heritage Events.
Sunday 24 August
Milltown: a celebration of heritage, history and homegrown talent
This event features a wide range of heritage events hosted at the Milltown Community Centre, Milltown, Tuam, Co. Galway, H54 D579. The programme for the day includes a Museum Open Day (11:00 to 14:00), a short film screening (11:30), a musical performance (11:45), and an archaeology lecture on the N17 Milltown to Gortnagunned road project (12:00).
If you would like to be kept informed of other TII Archaeology and Heritage books, audio-books, public events, and other occasional news, please send a 'Subscribe' email to archaeology@tii.ie and we will add you to our mailing list.
(Last updated: 14 August 2025)
