Carrickmines Castle
| Carrickmines Castle | ||
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 The grounds of Carrickmines Castle prior to the construction of the M50 motorway |
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| Creation time : | 12th Century | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg | |
| Conservation status: | Burgstall | |
| Standing position : | Norman nobility | |
| Construction: | Quarry stone | |
| Place: | Carrickmines | |
| Geographical location | 53 ° 15 '11.9 " N , 6 ° 10' 31.4" W | |
| Height: | 83 m ASLTemplate: height / unknown reference | |
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Carrickmines Castle ( Irish Caisleán Charraig Mhaighin ) is an Outbound castle in the suburb of Carrickmines (Irish Carraig Mhaighin ) in Irish County Dublin . The castle was built around Dublin in the Middle Ages to protect the English- ruled Pale . The mostly underground remains of the castle were on the planned route of the M50 motorway, which was completed in 2005. Parts of the medieval walls and some sections of the castle's defenses have been preserved in or under the roundabouts of the new motorway.
history
At the site of Carrickmines Castle was a Norse Gaelic settlement that was fortified into a Norman castle and village on the border between Dublin and Wicklow in the course of the 12th century . This fortress protected the southern plains and was once the center of the chain of Norman castles and outposts that ran along the border of the Pale - the area around Dublin under English rule in the Middle Ages.
In 1402 the O'Byrne clan from County Wicklow , who regularly raided Dublin, brought a large mercenary force to the banks of the Dargle at Bray . Since the direct route into town would have brought them close to Carrickmines Fortress, they evidently hesitated before attacking. This delay enabled the Walsh clan , which owned Carrickmines Castle, to send an urgent warning to Dublin. The Dubliners replied firmly: The Mayor of Dublin attacked the O'Byrnes with a large force and defeated them in what is known as the "Battle of the Bloody Shore" because of the number of dead.
As an important fortress, Carrickmines Castle had an extensive curtain wall flanked by towers and covered an area of several acres. Inside this curtain there was a settlement with an abundance of wooden and stone buildings, mills with a donjon or a hall house in the middle. On the site you can still find impressive defenses that were carved into the rock , and human remains from the pillage of the castle in 1642.
In the 1641 Rebellion , the Catholic Walshs sided with the native Irish and the Confederates set up the first independent Irish parliament. As one of the targets in the Irish Confederation Wars , the castle was besieged by English troops. Over 300 members of the Walsh , O'Byrne and O'Toole families were killed in the capture .
The M50 motorway and the "Carrickminders"
A protracted dispute raged over the castle ruins before the M50 motorway was built through the castle grounds. It began in 2002 when activists including Vincent Salafia and Gordon Lucas , who called themselves "Carrickminders", set up camp on the castle ruins to prevent them from being removed to make way for the highway. They were joined by conservation advocates such as Professor Seán Duffy , dean of the history department at Trinity College Dublin , and Mark Clinton , an archaeologist hired by the National Roads Authority as site manager. They argued that the site's potential for historical studies had not yet been fully recognized. They asked why the planned route of the M50 had been re-routed through the castle grounds in 1998, although the motorway had originally been planned around the site in 1993 on the advice of a state authority.
In 2005, both the M50 motorway and the Carrickmines junction were completed.
Decision of the Supreme Court
According to a July 26, 2006 report in the Irish Times , the Supreme Court unequivocally upheld the constitutional compliance of new laws affecting the maintenance of Carrickmines Castle grounds. The panel of five judges found that while the new legislation - Section 8 of the 2004 Amending Act on National Monuments - "removed a number of safeguards" regarding National Monuments, the Constitution of Ireland did not prohibit the Oireachtas , to enact such laws.
The court found that the Minister for the Environment, Historical Heritage and Local Administration was entitled to weigh the advantages of archaeological preservation against wider public interests arising from road construction in the implementing regulations.
Section 8 provided that the work affecting Carrickmines Castle would be carried out as directed by the Minister. The Court found that if the Minister had exercised his freedom of disposal under Section 8 in accordance with the constitution, he could issue such instruction as he saw fit. Ultimately, this means that the road works at Carrickmines Castle are no longer regulated under the National Monuments Act, the court said, even if it was affirmed that the castle ruins were a national monument and that the work was a large part of a ditch that ran over the Terrain had been discovered fell victim.
Section 8 stipulated that the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Administration, as landowner, did not need the consent of any body to carry out the work, nor was it necessary to confirm the Oireachtas. Also, there was no need to get permission under the Monuments Act of 1930, and An Bord Pleanála (Irish Planning Commission) was from considering whether the proposed works were likely to have a material impact on the environment and from conducting consideration a possible environmental impact excluded. There was "just a need for the work to be carried out as directed by the minister," the court found. It rejected objections that these instructions - ordered by Minister Dick Roche in August 2004 - violated the European Commission's environmental directives and were therefore null and void.
The Supreme Court ruled on an appeal against the rejection of a rejection of Dominic Dunne , both against Section 8 and the ministerial edicts by the High Court in September 2004. Dunne indicated that he would bring his case to the European Court of Justice .
National Roads Authority Conservation Plan
The NRA proposed a solution which, they said, would preserve extensive areas of the unique historical remains while ensuring that the Southeast Highway could continue to be built as intended.
This plan envisaged that additional sections of the medieval walls and some sections of the castle's defenses would be preserved within or below the M50 roundabouts. But An Taisce's requests to reduce the size of one of the roundabouts and adjust the access roads were not addressed in this plan.
Members of the NRA and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council said they had done as much as possible to preserve the castle ruins. € 6 million was spent on two years of excavation, and archaeologists found more than 40,000 artifacts (e.g. weapons, coins, human remains, and ceramics) before work on the highway continued.
Corruption allegations
On July 26, 2006, the Criminal Assets Bureau obtained an order from the High Court to freeze 42.8 acres of land in Carrickmines owned by Jackson Way Properties Ltd and prevent their sale. The CAB claimed that land was rededicated from agricultural land to industrial land by the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council on December 16, 1997 after journalist Frank Dunlop made public the bribes and payments made to councilors who supported the rededication vote should secure. This vote increased the value of just 6.8 hectares of land from € 8 million to € 61 million. The CAB interrogated Frank Dunlop and recorded his statements for use as a witness against a number of property developers.
The affected lands were examined by the Mahon Tribunal in 2003 and 2004 .
Gallery images
Remnant from the Carrickminder camp in January 2004
Remembering the Carrickminders
Discovered watercourse
Individual evidence
- ↑ Irish Times . July 26, 2006. Retrieved October 17, 2018.