John Tierney's blog

Aug
14
2025

Tracing Douro’s Families: An Irish Diaspora Community in Ontario, Canada

By John Tierney

This is the script of a talk given by John Tierney on Sunday 6th July 2025 , in Douro village, Ontario as part of the Douro 200th Anniversary of the Peter Robinson Settement which brought around 500 Irish families from southern Ireland to northern Ontario. Those families put down deep roots in the area while also spreading across the rest of the continent. John was invited by the Douro 200th Anniversary committee to attend, survey their local cemeteries, and give this talk.

Blog category: 
Places
Apr
17
2023

Surveying Inniscarra graveyard, Cork

By John Tierney

Community archaeology is all about relationships. It takes time to build a relationship and effort to maintain it. For a heritage project relationship to work, to sustain, there must be equal benefits for each participant. In graveyard surveys the Historic Graves team look to publish good quality survey data while learning about a new place. Our participating groups look to learn a new skill (graveyard survey) and to do real work.

Blog category: 
Places
Apr
07
2023

Monster Graves and the Incultum Project

By John Tierney
How has the Incultum (incultum.eu) heritage tourism research project (Horizon 2020) influenced our understanding of the archaeology of 19th & 20th century institutional burial practices in Ireland?
The Incultum project has allowed us to add innovative non-invasive survey to our usual work systems; testing an innovative GIS methodology to identify and analyse famine burial features. As field archaeologists the Historic Graves team identified the need to build a Dark History narrative based on scientific systems into our community surveys.
Blog category: 
Events
Sep
10
2020

Community Archaeology in a time of Covid-19 - the Heritage Council Community Archaeology Fund 2020

By John Tierney
For the first time in two years the Heritage Council have a Community Heritage Grant Scheme (https://www.heritagecouncil.ie/news/news-features/rebuilding-heritage-co...) to support community groups in a range of heritage projects. Deadline for grant applications is Tuesday next, 15th September; grant decisions are due by the end of September and all works have to be complete but the 23rd of November 2020.
Blog category: 
Miscellanea

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