Maggie Ronayne and commercial archaeology.

Riamfada

This article published by Maggie Ronayne of the UCG Department of Archaeology claims that there has been alterations to her site reports to lessen the archaeological significance of the findings on road scheme excavations. I have linked a download to the pdf that I found through the Tarawatch website.

Also here is a summary.

tarawatch website wrote:

My findings on Tara were altered, says archaeologist

Irish Mail on Sunday - 29 June 2008 - By Luke Byrne

A LEADING archaeologist employed to survey the M3 Tara Valley route has claimed her findings were changed to support the motorway when in fact there was evidence against it. In a devastating attack, Jo Ronayne - who was working for the National Roads Authority - says her findings were altered before being presented to ministers. Miss Ronayne, who was an excavation director at the Tara valley site in Co. Meath, claims she was told to ‘change interpretations’ so as to ‘lessen to potential of numbers of sites’. And she says she was excluded from NRA meetings in which her evidence was altered before reports were passed on to the Government. The damning allegations will shatter the Governments defence that it would not change the Tara route because there is no significant archaeological site on it. And it will lead to disturbing questions about whether ministers - and in turn the public or even the courts - were misled about the archaeological finds.

Miss Ronayne, who was directly employed by NRA subcontractor Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd, suggests in an explosive academic article that her role appeared to have been a sham. ‘I didn’t realise that the testing and my reports would be used to facilitate rather than stop the project going ahead. Or that they don’t let you write the truth in the reports or give you enough time to do a proper job,’ she wrote. The archaeologist - whose sister Maggie, an archaeology lecturer in NUI Galway, is due to attend today’s World Archaeological Congress in Dublin - remains utterly disenchanted with how she says her reports were used and portrayed. She said: ‘I held the licence and was responsible for the work, but the NRA archaeologist would come down and tell me what I should be doing. ‘Directors or field archaeologists working on the sites were not allowed to attend meetings where decisions were made by the NRA’s own archaeologists about how to interpret and present what we were finding.’ She added: ‘A number of times I was told to change an interpretation which served to lessen the potential numbers of sites. We were also told to excavate large sections even tough you are not supposed to excavate in the testing phase. ‘They edited our reports before the Minister saw them.’

In May 2005, following preliminary archaeological reports made by the NRA, the then-environment minister Dick Roche sanctioned 38 archaeological excavations in the Tara-Skryne valley in Co. Meath, effectively approving the route. It was reports such as those complied by Miss Ronayne that Mr Roche would have been presented with before he eventually gave his approval for the project. Following the decision to go ahead with the road, Miss Ronayne and a number of archaeologists refused to work on the excavations. Since the route of the M3 was approved, there have been a number of protests aimed at highlighting the archaeological value of the stretch of motorway.

However, the results of initial test-trenching were often highlighted by advocates of the route of the motorway. In March 2005, Frank Cosgrave of the Meath Citizens for the M3 group, told the Joint Committee on Environment and Local Government: ‘Nothing that could be described as a “national monument” has been found.” At the same meeting, Cork TD Billy Kelliher said: ‘The argument put forward by the archaeologists with regard to the richness of the area is a bit of a myth.’ Labour Environment spokeswoman Joanna Tuffy said: “If this is true, I think we need to bring in a completely independent archaeological survey to make sure that anything that can be salvaged will be. ‘At this stage we’ve already gone too far so we can’t turn back.’ Miss Tuffy added: ‘This incident is something that I will raise in the Dail.

Truth on Tara was buried deep due to culture of lies

Irish Mail on Sunday - EDITORIAL

29 June 2008

BUILDING a much-needed road ought to be reasonably straightforward. Yet, years after Meath commuters were promised the M3 motorway, the project has been hit by another completely avoidable scandal. The revelation of official interference in the archaeological studies at Tara mean more misery for those stuck in tailbacks, but it is the culture of official deception that poses the gravest questions.

A lot of people have been badly misled. Archaeologists hired for their professional expertise and integrity have not in the words of one, been allowed to ‘write the truth’. Altering independent advice to fit hidden agendas is a dangerous corruption of working of Government in itself, more typical of systematically dishonest regimes than a democratic country like ours. Dail and public debates were based on information that cannot now be trusted. The courts have been asked to make judgments premised, in part, on studies that contain the taint of offical tampering. And a difficult decision whether to put the real needs of the travelling public nover the genuine loss of a part of our patrimony has been subverted by bureaucrats trusted to give us accurate information.

Those responsible cannot be allowed to hide behind the monolithic facade of the public sector. This is a dishonest decision with serious consequences. The individuals responsible - who must be known to those who can blow the whistle on their misdeeds - must be held to account. But the culture of dishonesty that makes such flagrant interference possible is harder to root out without clear direction from the very top. This is a Government that routinely plays fast and loose with the accuracy of the information it serves up. Bitter experience has taught the public not to take on trust the official information it receives. Yet the truth will always out. Public confidence in politics is as low as it is because political standards are so low. This sort of deliberate dishonesty needs to be stamped out, with the Taoiseach and the Cabinet setting standards at the top.

www.tarawatch.org

Full PDF

G

Meathlass

Did anyone hear the interview between Maggie and Mary Deevy last week on Matt Cooper? She said on air that Mary Deevy had told her to her face on site not to dig certain 'archaeologcial features'! Why she didn't come out with this at the time is a wonder. All seems to coincide nicely with WAC starting last week. It's a pity as there is certainly a debate worth having about the NRA editing reports and getting to have a look at them before they're sent to dept. Mind you any report I've ever gotten back has just had grammar, format and template corrections, maybe even references to articles and research to look up but never a change to interpretation, plus it's the companies job to print the reports off so they'd know if there had been any substantial changes.

lostexpectation

http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u167/muireanntemair/Crib%20wall%20at%20Rath%20Lugh%20080808/

"two fields away" Mary deevy 2007

Riamfada

ah ok. Lostexpectation, i note that the enviromental editor of the Times Frank McDonald quotes M.Deevy as stating "two fields away" in this article Roads agency denies damage to Tara site but forgive my lack of knowledge on this part but apparently the fact that this statement was ever said is a bit contentious?

lostexpectation

Grimes wrote: »

ah ok. Lostexpectation, i note that the enviromental editor of the Times Frank McDonald quotes M.Deevy as stating "two fields away" in this article Roads agency denies damage to Tara site but forgive my lack of knowledge on this part but apparently the fact that this statement was ever said is a bit contentious?

she said it on radio program and it used be to on the nra site.
there no doubt that's what she thought, she didn't check the old maps, although we all saw it, yes? so she did think it was two fields away, there are NRA statement on this if you followed it that closely you know they messed denied it for years and finally admitted but went ahead with the bulldozers anyway.

if thats not incompetent i don't know what is.

I have been asked by Mr. John Gormley, T.D., Minister for the
Environment, Heritage and Local Government to refer further to your
recent correspondence in relation to Rath Lugh.

I should point out that the location of the monument at Rath Lugh is
shown incorrectly on the Record of Monuments and Places (RMP) map. The
location is, in fact, closer to the M3 than shown. Earlier this year,
following discussions with the Department and the National Museum of
Ireland, the NRA and Meath County Council commissioned a detailed
topographic survey in order to confirm its precise location in relation
the M3. The survey confirmed that the monument is approximately 20m east
of the motorway fence line. Special measures are being put in place to
ensure that the monument is not under-mined or endangered in any way
during construction or when the road comes into operation.

Aelfric

One of the biggest problems with Rath Lugh is that it has been shrouded in trees for so long, that aerial photos do not adequately show the perimeter of the earthworks, nor has it been possible to survey properly in the past. In fact, when ACS Ltd. conducted the topographical survey for Meath Co Co/NRA, they were forced to use a Total Station/EDM, as the GPS system could not get enough coverage. The survey work was further hampered by the protestors pulling their control pegs up overnight.

lostexpectation

if only they'd done it right five years ago when they were supposed to all im hearing is excuses to go ahead and build the road whatever about the national monuments

Fin Dwyer

Here's an article on the problems with the archaeology industry in Ireland.
http://irishhistorypodcast.ie/2011/08/17/8-reasons-why-the-building-boom-was-bad-for-irish-archaeology/