Viking Dublin Exposed: The Woodquay Saga.

Viking Dublin ExposedAuthor: BRADLEY, John (Editor).

Dublin: O’Brien Press, 1984. 184 pages. Illustrated. Hardback.

Why did twenty thousand people march demanding ‘Save Wood Quay’?

Why was Wood Quay declared a National Monument and then destroyed with government consent?

Why was a huge building project stopped, initially with court injunctions and later with an occupation by leading public figures including members of the present government?

Why is Dublin Corporation continuing to pursue Fr F.X. Martin for massive damages?

For most Irish people Wood Quay is synonymous with insensitive urban development. Here Dublin Corporation chose to build multi-million-pound tower blocks as Civic Offices. The location, directly in front of Christ Church Cathedral, placed them within the core of the old medieval city and on top of one of the most important archaeological sites in Western Europe. Their construction provoked a confrontation between those who wished to maintain the site as a National Monument and the bureaucratic machine determined to get its buildings at any cost.

Why did government and local officials mislead people for years? Did the National Museum agree to the bulldozing of valuable historical material?

Why is the Wood Quay case before the European Court of Human Rights?

The story of Wood Quay begins in Viking times and stretches into the present. This book shows the archaeological significance of the site and provides the personal views and experiences of leaders in the dramatic recent events, revealing, for the first time, what actually happened.

Contents:-

Acknowledgements
Foreword — A. J. Otway-Ruthven
Introduction — John Bradley

VIKING DUBLIN PLUNDERED
1  The Modern Annals of Wood Quay — Richard Haworth
2 Politics, Public Protest and the Law — F. X. Martin, osa
3 Occupation Diary — Bride Rosney

A TREASURED PAST
4 Leaves from a Retrospective Photo Album — Peter Walsh
5 A Reappraisal of the Archaeological Significance of Wood Quay — Patrick F. Wallace
6 Excavations in Old Dublin — Breandan O Riordain
7 The Historian and Wood Quay — Howard Clarke
8 A Key Place for Dublin, Past and Present — Anngret Simms
9 Medieval Banks of the Liffey Estuary — John de Courcy

FUTURE POTENTIAL
10 A Policy for Medieval Dublin — The Friends of Medieval Dublin

Notes
Picture Credits

ISBN: 0862780667