Metal Detectors in Ireland

Here's a piece about a conviction in the midlands a few years ago. Do a google and you'll find a few related stories.



Metal detectors may lead to iron bars
By Cormac O’Keeffe

DO NOT buy or accept metal detectors as presents this Christmas or you could end up spending the new year in jail, an expert warned yesterday. And shops and manufacturers were told not to advertise metal detectors as they were making potential criminals of buyers. Antiquities expert Dr Ned Kelly made the comments yesterday as selected items from a hoard of 800 artifacts, which were recovered from thieves, were put on display at the National Museum. “We would advise people coming up to Christmas, not to give or receive metal detectors. “They run the risk of finding themselves before the courts, and even run the risk of imprisonment,” Dr Kelly said. It is illegal to dig for archeological objects and to use metal detectors for such a purpose without a special licence. Dr Kelly said advertisements were running in national papers promoting metal detectors, including junior versions for €12.50. The National Museum’s antiquities curator said one supermarket was also promoting them, unaware they were making potential criminals of buyers. Dr Kelly unveiled a number of items recovered from a massive artifact theft involving more than 800 items. These included a rare gold covered Christian mount from Lorrha, Co Tipperary, featuring a crucifix in a circular frame. The mount is thought to have an insurance value to up to €50,000. Other items on display were two Bronze Age daggers, an Iron Age pin, musket balls and hundreds of perfectly preserved coins with the month and the year of minting still visible. “We are giving people an opportunity to see this significant and important material.
Not to have documented it and the material collected would have been a significant loss,” said Dr Kelly. Anthony Molloy, a 68-year-old former Duchas employee, and his 44-year-old son Kevin, were last week found guilty at Birr District Court of being in the possession of archeological objects. Judge Michael Reilly gave them the probation act partly because they had co-operated fully with the National Museum. The court had heard that Anthony Molloy had been given a metal detector as a retirement present. The father and son went on to raid monastic sites and castles near their north Tipperary home. Dr Kelly advised people who have information on the use of metal detectors to contact the gardaí or the National Museum on 01-6777444.
http://www.examiner.ie/

cable842 wrote: »

vulcan I wouldnt let all that put me off ever kid growing up wants and have always wanted a Metal Detector.

Reading all the facts there I still would love to buy one as long as your let the owner of the land know what your doing and if you do find stuff you hand it in too the museum.

Its being broadcast onm national geograhic today it happened last terry jones we'll call him and a farm made a deal where terry would scout his land and if he found anything they would spilt it.

Anyway Terry found gold last year and they handed it into the museum and gave them him and the farmer 3.25million tax free.

Saying that it took terry 6 years too find the gold.

Saxon Gold was the name of that docu

The long and the short of it is that you require an individual Detection Device License to be issued for each and every time you plan to go metal detecting with the intention of finding any kind of historical object - and the law assumes that that is what you are doing whenever you are using a metal detector. Archaeologists do use metal detectors in field work but they also have to apply for and be granted a licence each time - in addition to the licence they require for each an every dig they do.

In considering your application the National Monuments Service will consider your research design, qualifications, expertise and funding for conserving anything you find (which also requires a separate licence) , and a declaration that anything you do find is the property of the National Museum. You'll also need to prepare a report on your findings.

You can download the application form (NMS 2-06) on this page: http://www.archaeology.ie/en/PublicationsFormsLegislation/

Note also the condition on that form:

A consent to use a detection device does not include permission to dig for archaeological objects. If digging or the recovery of archaeological objects is envisaged, a separate excavation licence must be applied for (see Form NMS 1-06).

Good luck.

As I understand it Time Team have asked for and been refused permission on a number of occasions. I think that's rather stupid, as they're a positive force for appreciation of archaeology, and their academic members are very well thought of here. They have poked about in the six counties a few times, though. Coming from a quite different legal setup Britain has a much more progressive approach to the metal detector community, through the Portable Antiquities Scheme (http://www.finds.org.uk/), which has borne some fascinating fruit. In Ireland the tendency fro detectorists has been to smuggle nice stuff out of the country or sell it for bullion value. Everyone loses.

Tordelback wrote: »

Sorry to be argumentative Bloodyhell, but even the finest object loses much of its historical value if you've no idea of how or why it got into the ground in the first place, and in many cases where ownership is disputed even where.

If something is excavated properly we'll know more about both it and the place/time it came from. Was it a burial good, accidentally lost, or placed safely in storage? Was it the single precious thing of an entire tribe or monastery, or just the one small part of their great wealth? Did its owners trade for it or make it there at the site? Was it brand new or was it kept and maintained for generations? Was it used and lost in a settlement, a cemetery, a trading centre, a church, a fair, a ford, a fort, a road or a battlefield? All these things we'll never know.

There isn't even an automatic process of 'knowing' what date an artefact is, new excavation findings of objects in association with other objects alter those ideas all the time.

This doesn't even address the damage digging an object up can do to other less obviously precious archaeological remains around it.

The Derrynaflan Hoard you refer to was maybe a bit different, in that the chalice, paten, strainer and basin all appear to have been hidden and not recovered, so there was probably very little contextual info to be found - whereas a study of the manufacture of the vessels themselves was hugely informative about cultural contacts, technologies and techniques. The ensuing court cases however were nothing but damaging for everybody.

what if you find something at 4 inches deep, you take the object from the ground and mark the exact spot, can you still collect info?
just a what if question