DUBLIN Corporation has finally purged the ghost of Wood Quay by agreeing to take charge of the suspected medieval remains of St Thomas's Abbey, which were recently unearthed on a private development site in the Liberties.
The city archaeologist, Ms Daire O'Rourke, said the find was of "major significance" and she was very pleased the corporation was taking such a "proactive role" in protecting it, at an estimated cost to the city's coffers of £250,000.
Since its own hitter experience, over the Civic Offices at Wood Quay in the late 1970s, archaeology has been an almost unmentionable word among seniors corporation officials. But now, it has "fully recanted", according to Mr Owen Keegan, assistant city manager.
St Thomas's Abbey was commissioned by King Henry II in 1177, in atonement for the murder by his knights of Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury. An Augustinian foundation, it was one of the most important religious houses in medieval Dublin.
Coincidentally, it was an Augustinian friar, Prof F.X. Martin, who led the popular campaign to save the Viking site at Wood Quay. He was later pursued by the corporation for some £80,000 in costs, but this "debt" has since been forgiven.
Remnants of what is believed to be St Thomas's Abbey were discovered on a small site off Meath Street where a developer intended to build some town houses. They included decorated stones and ceramic floor tiles, indicating an ecclesiastical foundation.
Describing it as "one of the most important archaeological finds to date in Dublin", Ms O'Rourke noted that tile pavements are extremely rare survivors in Ireland and have only previously been excavated at two sites - Swords Castle, Co Dublin, and Duiske Abbey, Co Kilkenny.
The find, on a laneway off South Earl Street, was made by a consultant archaeologist, Ms Claire Walsh, who had been employed by the developer to carry out an assessment of the site under the standard terms of the planning permission granted by the corporation.
"I got a phone call to come down after some early walls had been found there," Ms O'Rourke told The Irish Times yesterday. "It was clear that this was of immense archaeological importance, so we immediately called in the National Monuments Service."
She explained that, because of its small size, no configuration of piling could be devised to develop the site without damaging the remains, so the corporation agreed to her proposal that it should be taken into public ownership.
The developer agreed to accept its offer of an alternative site at the junction of Church Street and North King Street, which is currently in use as a surface car park, and this "land swap" has now been approved by the City Council.
The Church Street site was valued at £250,000 and it will cost as much again to carry out a detailed archaeological excavation; this is to be funded by the National Monuments Service, in view of the "very important" nature of the find.
"I am very pleased that the corporation has finally recognised that archaeology isn't all bad and that some good publicity can be gained by doing the right thing," Ms O'Rourke said, adding she was quite excited by the prospects.
The corporation has also sponsored publication of a book on the archaeological excavations in the mid 1980s at Patrick Street, Nicholas Street and Winetavern Street. The consultant archaeologist involved was Ms Walsh, of St Thomas's Abbey fame.
At a ceremony to mark its publication last Thursday, the city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, joked that the Patrick Street road scheme almost deserved an archaeological excavation in its own right, as the first property had been acquired before the second World War.
