Should Metal Detecting Be Legalised In Ireland Too?

Problem is if people go on public land and start digging up parks, beaches and wherever else.

shouldn’t be a problem using it on your own land, land of a friend or family member once permission has been sought and granted but unfortunately if they were made legal tomorrow you’d have every headbanger digging up pitches, golf courses, peoples private property etc… just to satisfy their curiosity and weird obsession with these things.

Get a proper hobby..

Kinda like fireworks.

Blue movies were illegal once and pirated blue movies.

Some guy get into trouble selling dodgy VHS from a van.

If it was a cloud service he would have been a tech visionary.

😁

Then have some sort of certification system in place. make them do a one day course.

they're not going around with a JCB. They're just people with a trowel

It takes years to become an archaeologist yet you think a 1 day course will teach people enough not to destroy our history! You don't need a JCB to destroy an artifact, a trowel will do just as good a job.

I can't see any good from letting people metal detect and I can see plenty of issues. The biggest issue is that anything found belongs to the State.

If it on private land though what is there to stop the owner at sone point digging the area for farming or gardening purposes, and doing far more damage?

They're not going to be archaeologists. They're not going to be performing huge digs. They're some people with metal detectors walking across a field. If they find anything, they call in archaeologists who perform a proper escalation on the site. It's ridiculous to hold them to the same standards.

So let me get this straight? Someone shouldn't be allowed go through a field with a metal detector in case they destroy something with a trowel? But it's ok to plough or dig up the field?

And it's better to leave something to never be discovered rather than risk a guy with a trowel.

Fields have been ploughed for hundreds of years. Farmers aren't ploughing any deeper.

But some fool with a metal detector will go out and start digging holes where they shouldn't, damaging artefacts and destroying the context in which they're found.

My point was that in a field that's unploughed, it's ok to plough it but not ok to use a metal detector.

I realise that certain areas might be off limits. That's fine. That's why I suggested a register. But the law currently is that you're not allowed do it anywhere. That's a bit nuts. We don't want you doing it in place X so we're going to make it illegal to do it anywhere. I could understand banning it on the hill of tara but it's not allowed on Bull island?

BTW, you mentioned bogs. That's another weird example. It's ok to drain it and dig turf but not use a metal detector?

As this is AH I'll say that flagged up visions of a zombie horde descending chasing poor Tony R.

No. They just put forward key areas where they suspect it shouldn't be allowed.

And I understand the issues with Tony Robinson under a blanket but that's not going to stop illegal activities. Archaeologists are worried about someone going into a site they're digging and looting the place at night. That's illegal now and would be illegal even if detectoring was legal.

Looters will loot anyway. Stopping a hobbyist from doing it legally won't stop looters.

Archaeology and history are fascinating subjects. They should be available to all. This is academic gate keeping. It's keeping everyone out. There's an opportunity to invite people in and educate them. To share this with people who have a passion for it. To let them participate and help, but pure snobbishness is keeping the plebs out.

They could help set the rules. They could build a framework. They don't.