ARCH40470 Archaeology & WHM in Ireland

Academic Year 2017/2018

This module will look at the management of cultural and cultural landscape World Heritage sites from a management and research perspective. The particular focus will be on World Heritage Sites in Ireland (Republic and Northern Ireland) in the context of the goals of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee: Credibility, Conservation, Capacity-Building and Communication (the 4 Cs).

In the Republic of Ireland since 2007 there has been a specific government strategy to review and increase the number of World Heritage Sites. This led to the evaluation by an expert group of the existing Tentative List and public consultation regarding a new draft Tentative List of potential sites for nomination which was submitted to and accepted by UNESCO in 2010. There are several interesting aspects to the new Tentative List, not least the inclusion of serial or multi-site nominations. In 2013 the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht announced an important change in approach to potential nominations from the Tentative List, stating that only proposals that were developed from 'the bottom up' would be considered.

Other important developments have been the formulation of a research framework for the Brú na Bóinne WHS (2009), the review process for the Brú na Bóinne management plan, the impact of the way in which Clonmacnoise was advanced for nomination (2009) and the debate about the management of the Skellig Michael WHS. All of these issues are important in a local context and they also provide a perspective from which to look at the World Heritage programme in Ireland as a case study to evaluate international processes for identifying and managing sites at different stages in the WH inscription process. A comparative approach will be emphasised, placing the World Heritage programme in Ireland in the context of the UNESCO World Heritage Global Strategy.

Field-based discussion will be a key and major element of the module.