Letter to the Editor
Dear Sir
Vandalism by our Road Improvers.
I want to protest, through your Journal, on the vandalism recently perpetrated by our Road Improvers in the Ballingeary area.
We do not have many sites of Archaeological interest remaining in the Parish of Uibh Laoire. Many have been destroyed in the past by thoughtless or selfish levelling of gallauns, ringforts, and ancient tombs.
It is to be hoped that our attitude today should be much more knowledgeable and caring for the remains of our ancient culture.
It is with sorrow therefore that we note the destruction of a part of our one and only 7th.c Ecclesiastical Site in Kilmore, just east of Ballingeary village, as part of the road-widening scheme. By a stroke of luck, the road wideners just missed destroying one particularly important feature in this Enclosure. They appear to have missed the Souterrain by a few feet.
Why do we have bodies such as an Taisce, Duchas, and the Archaeological Departments of UCC and the County Council? Are they consulted before major road works are started? Were they consulted in this project? Do they know what has been done without their noticing.
Although it had been known as a Kileen for generations, the full importance of
the 7th.c. Ecclesiastical site in Kilmore was first realised in 1989, when a piece of farm machinery fell into the Souterrain. This item was examined by an Archaeological team at the time. Since then, during 1997, the potential Ecclesiastical Site was examined by the Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division under Jerry O’Sullivan.
Their Report indicated the probability of an important Ecclesiastical Site, and the intention to carry out further diggings at a later date, when funding could be obtained.
The site is included in the Cork Archaeological Survey for Mid-Cork, described as Site No 9209 as a "possible early ecclesiastical site."
Why do we have such desecration? Who is responsible for this happening? Will it happen again, here or at another of our few remaining sites?
We would like to have some explanation of all this.
Yours faithfully
Peter O’Leary, Derryvane, Inchigeelagh.