News Archive
MONASTIC IRELAND website launched
The Monastic Ireland project is led by Dr Rachel Moss (PI, TCD), Dr Edel Bhreathnach (Discovery Programme), and Dr Malgorzata Krasnodebska-D’Aughton (UCC). The project investigates the role of the religious orders in the establishment and development of urban and rural settlement across Ireland, placing the Irish studies in a broader European context.
On 4 December 2014, Heather Humphreys T.D., Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht launched two new websites on the theme of Monastic Ireland AD1100-1700: landscape and settlement. The websites (www.monastic.ie and www.monastic.ie/education) are exciting resources for visitors to some of Ireland’s most important medieval monasteries and friaries and for teachers and students to connect them with their local heritage. The websites are part of a major project on Monastic Ireland involving the Discovery Programme (www.discoveryprogramme.ie), the Department of History of Art and Architecture, Trinity College Dublin (www.tcd.ie/History_of_Art) and the School of History, University College Cork (http://www.ucc.ie/en/history).
The Monastic Ireland project has been funded through the Fáilte Ireland Applied Research Scheme and Department of Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht (Built Heritage Scheme), University College Dublin (Phase 1: 2011-2013) and the Irish Research Council (2014-2016).
The aim of the tourist website is to provide visitors with access to educational, practical and entertaining information based on high quality historical and archaeological information. This information is accompanied by a tour of each site.
The educational resource is for teachers and students wishing to develop local history and archaeological projects. This website revolves around the existence of monastic and church sites in every locality in Ireland and how these buildings and landscapes can be used to connect young people with their historic and archaeological environs and make them the custodians of their own heritage.
The Minister emphasised that the Monastic Ireland project is an exciting departure in the use of electronic media to build up resources for visitors, schools and researchers, while providing extensive scholarly information on the sites that dominate the landscape of so many parts of the country.