Ireland: Underwater Archaeology Unit (UAU), National Monuments Service
Contact: Archaeological dive officer Dr Connie Kelleher, connie.kelleher@ahg.gov.ie; 00353 872333859
Website: http://www.archaeology.ie
Mission:
The UAU is tasked with the management and protection of Ireland’s underwater cultural heritage. It has a broad work brief that includes the quantification of the underwater resource through survey, excavation, public awareness, and its management and protection through legislative measures including the licensing of diving for archaeological purposes or on protected wreck sites. The UAU is represented on the board of the European Scientific Diving Panel (ESDP), which facilitates a pan-European framework that promotes industry best practice in scientific diving and has as one of its objectives the promotion of accepted standards in scientific diving and advance underwater scientific excellence in Europe; http://www.scientific-diving.eu/
Irish Underwater Council (Comhairle Fo Thuinn – CFT)
Contact: Archaeological Dive Officer Claire Kavanagh; 00353 12844601; http://www.diving.ie
78A Patrick Street, Dun Laoghaire
Mission:
CFT is the national governing body for recreational underwater sports in Ireland. It seeks to provide safety in diving through an established training programme and club system and operates its diving using core principles relating to safety in diving and governed by a specific Code of Conduct. It is affiliated to CMAS International, the organization for recreational diver training worldwide.
UAU & CFT:
CFT in 2014 engaged their own underwater archaeologist Claire Kavanagh, underwater archaeologist, fully-qualified recreational diver to dive master & Monitor 3-star level, to engage with the NAS training programme and this has now expanded with the delivery of NAS courses nationwide. The UAU is liaising directly on this, advising on course content and assisting where possible on courses. The appetite among CFT-affiliated dive clubs in particular has grown hugely, with extremely positive results including individual club projects being undertaken and published and existing projects expanded. In 2016 the UAU continued to work with CFT on the delivery of its NAS courses and for the coming year, as part of its own dive programme, the UAU would hope to link in on a number of projects in 2017 focusing on specific wreck sites.
UAU & individual independent recreational divers:
The UAU has liaised with individual recreational divers during the course of the year regarding specific wreck sites, particularly through its statutory role in the licensing of diving on specific protected wreck sites. A report is then made at the end of each year on the sites dived and which includes observations on the condition of the wrecks, provision of photographic and video footage and general information on the shipwrecks; the information is then added to the National Monuments Service’s Wreck Inventory of Ireland Database (WIID) and forms part of the public dataset on wrecks around the coast of Ireland. Interest in WWI wreck sites continues to gather strength, and though not covered by the 100-year protection rule, some wreck sites due to their historical and cultural heritage significance, have had the requirement for a licence to dive being imposed in order to dive the sites. This includes the 1917 wreck of the German submarine, the UC-42 in Cork Harbour. There continues to be a focus on the wreck of the RMS Lusitania, and a number of licence to dive applications were dealt with in 2016, including a number of dives taking place on behalf of the owner of the wreck itself, Mr Gregg Bemis.
2017 plans:
The UAU is scheduled to work with local dive clubs in Cork, including Colm Doyle and Cork Sub-Aqua Club on a project on the only remaining elements anywhere of a Brennan torpedo at Camden Fort Meagher in the harbour, with the mapping and detailed recording of the tracks still in place underwater. This has been a NAS project carried out by the Cork dive club and continues to be a focus of their training; there are also plans to include Cork Sub-Aqua Club and its members in a project on the wreck site of the Santa Ana Maria in Castlehaven Harbour, also in Cork as part of the continuing NAS training programme. Sligo Sub-Aqua Club will again join the UAU on its Armada wreck project in Streedagh, Co. Sligo this coming summer.
Department of Archaeology, University College Cork, Ireland; course on Introduction to Underwater Archaeology:
Contact: Course Lecturer Dr Connie Kelleher; 00353 (0)21 490 4048; connie.kelleher@ahg.gov.ie; ckelleher@ucc.ie
https://www.ucc.ie/en/archaeology/
Mission:
The goals of the Department are the advancement of research in archaeological discipline, the education and training of professional archaeologists and the promotion of an informed appreciation and protection of the archaeology of Ireland in a European context.
The course delivered on underwater archaeology, while short, seeks to introduce the student to the fundamentals of the discipline, looking at its national as well as global development, paying particular attention to shipwreck sites, underwater survey and excavation methodology and diver training programmes along with discussions on the management and protection of the underwater cultural resource and ethics in underwater archaeology. Students who continue to MA level can get an opportunity to participate in projects being undertaken by the UAU and students who carry out individual projects as part of their studies can link in with the UAU on its work.