Programme:
10.00: Registration, Tea/Coffee.
10:30-11.10: Finola O Carroll, Site Director, Blackfriary Archaeology Field school ‘Recent findings from the Blackfriary and its gardens’.
11.10-11.50: Dr. Michael Potterton, Maynooth University ‘Trim in the time of Geoffrey de Geneville'.
11.50-12.30: Dr Anne-Julie Lafaye IRC Postdoctoral Fellow, University College Cork 'Blackfriary and the Dominicans in Ireland: Landscape, space and architecture'.
12.30-12.50: Tea/Coffee
12.50- 1.30: Maeve L’Estrange, PhD Scholar, University College Dublin ‘Seeds and Bones: towards a culinary archaeology of Blackfriary’.
Press Release:
On Saturday, March 9th a seminar was held at the Black Friary to talk about the recent findings from the Community Dig, which took place August 2018 in the area of the monastic gardens. These are believed to be laid out in four parallel strips running east west from the back of the east range of buildings. Both the dig and the seminar were supported by Meath County Council and many people who took part in the dig came back to hear more about the friary’s history and about the results from the subsequent investigations into the seeds that were recovered from the excavations.
Talks were given by the site Director Finola O’Carroll, who summarised the results of the excavations to date and talked about the results of work carried out by David Stone, PhD candidate and Fulbright – Creative Ireland Museum Fellow, UCD, on the seeds recovered from the garden during the dig. She revealed that some of these seeds had been dated by radiocarbon dating carried out by the Chronos Centre in Queen’s University, Belfast, and that these confirmed that the layout of the gardens that we can still see today was constructed very early in the life of the friary.
Dr. Michael Potterton then took us around Trim in the time of Geoffrey de Geneville, Lord of Trim and Patron of the Friary. He gave a short history de Geneville’s career, including his time as Justiciar, or King’s representative of all Ireland.
Dr. Annejulie Lafaye spoke about how the friars the development of the churches in friaries reflected the relationship between the friars and the communities and patrons that supported them.
Finally, Maeve L’Estrange showed us how medieval food was tasty and interesting, and directly linked the seeds and animal bones we are finding in the excavations to the foods and recipes that people had at the time. She talked a lot about the importance of bread, and showed pictures of a bread oven she is making in the UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture. Food for thought indeed!
We were delighted to have a really good turnout. Forty-four people came on the day, many from Trim and environs, but others as far afield as Dublin, Balbriggan, Swords and Roscommon. There was a great buzz, and we had standing room only by the time we kicked off with the talks. There was plenty of chat over teas and coffees with considerable interest expressed in the idea of trying out some of Maeve’s recipes on the site this summer!