Irish Emigrant Article

For some reason I like reading The Emigrant.  I think they have a good perspective on what we're doing.  It's not just the artifacts, it's the story behind them.  Follow the link for the full article, but here is an excerpt:

Dr. Donnelly told The Irish Emigrant that Lynch’s work pointed the group to two breakthrough discoveries.

“When we matched up the scans with maps from the 1850s which showed a building owned by a Fr. McDermott, we chose to investigate two particular spots: the possible site of a chimney, and what we believed to be the clay floor of the priest’s timber house.” Dr. Donnelly said.

Records show that Fr. McDermott was then Parish Priest at St. Mary’s, and it is thought the house dates from the period 1847 to 1869.

They hit pay dirt straight away; one trench unearthed a large stone base which may have borne the weight of a chimney as high as two storeys, and the other revealed a layer of clay which was likely the floor of the house for which the team was searching. A new chapter in the history of the Irish settlers has been written, and the next set of questions now lie waiting to be answered.

St. Patrick’s historian and archivist David McKean is thrilled about the dig’s success and what it means in terms of reinvigorating the history of the town.

“It’s gone so much better than we ever could have expected,” he told The Irish Emigrant. “The story of this place and the Irish people was only ever told by the Yankees. The Irish weren’t given a voice. Now, the story can finally be told from their point of view.”

(Gee, that McKean guy is so wise!)

Here's the link: http://www.irishemigrant.com/ie/go.asp?p=story&storyID=9815