Latest Laois Event: Monumental Exhibition at Dunamaise Arts Centre

Dunamaise Arts Centre hosts ‘Monumental Ireland – A New Focus’,

Dunamaise Arts Centre is delighted to host ‘Monumental Ireland – A New Focus’, a stunning

new collection of photographs of Ireland’s finest archaeological monuments, curated by the

National Monuments Service (NMS) in partnership with the Office of Public Works (OPW)

from 14 March to 30 April. Special guest Malcolm Noonan T.D., Minister for Heritage and

Electoral Reform will officially open the exhibition on Thursday 30 March at 7pm.

Offering fresh new perspectives on Ireland’s ancient monuments, the exhibition highlights

both the resilience of these monuments and their vulnerability. The exhibition provides in

one space, an accessible and breath-taking gaze at a range of monuments that tell the story

of Ireland.

The photos are from the National Monuments Service Photographic Unit, originally set up in

1955. The unit has built upon its collection of photographs over the years and this archive is

now approaching 550,000 images, mainly of national monuments and historic properties in

State care.

The Photographic Unit’s main function is to record conservation works at national

monuments and to maintain its collection of photographs of sites and monuments,

recording their condition and conservation works. Selected images from this photographic

archive will be on display to the public at Monumental Ireland, allowing members of the

public to witness and appreciate the monuments and the work of the Photographic Unit in

cataloguing this heritage.

The exhibition includes remarkable new imagery of the world-renowned Winter Solstice

phenomenon at Newgrange passage tomb. As part of a two year research project between

NMS and OPW, imagery captured from a high-resolution camera in the burial chamber and

controlled via an internet connection, has shown the dawn sun rays illuminating the

chamber as never previously captured, enabling this phenomenon to be witnessed by

Everyone.

There are over 145,000 known archaeological monuments across Ireland, representing

more than 12,000 years of human settlement. This archaeological heritage is central to a

sense of place for communities across the country, evidence of continuity and change across our landscapes and towns. Offering places of retreat, for quiet reflection and education, they also prompt questioning of a past, which has been at times conflicted in its complexity of ancient tribalism, conquest and independence.

Over the last 150 years, approximately a thousand of these monuments have come into the

care of the State and are the responsibility of Ireland’s Office of Public Works and National

Monuments Service.

This collection from the NMS Photographic Archive allows an appreciation of the work

undertaken to conserve and maintain the monuments. The images demonstrate the value

of using modern photographic techniques in preserving records of the past. Advanced

photographic technology is increasingly being used to better understand and record these

monuments and conservation work carried out on them. High Resolution Medium Format

cameras are used to capture intense detail of monuments across the country, with infrared

camera technology bringing this detail to life, including prehistoric rock art and ship graffiti.

Drone technology is also now an integral part of the survey and monitoring regime,

producing photogrammetric models for ongoing conservation research. These aerial views

of iconic monuments within their landscapes brings to view these monuments in a way not

previously appreciated.

Minister of State for Heritage, and Electoral Reform Malcolm Noonan said:

“This exhibition is a wonderful display of the beauty of our archaeological monument in

State care, managed by OPW. I applaud the work of our National Monuments Service in

curating this exhibition and managing its extraordinary photographic archive.”

Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW Patrick O’Donovan said:

“Our partnership with the National Monuments Service is a strong one. The photographing

of the monuments in our care, including of conservation works carried out by us is a really

important record that I am delighted to see exhibited so wonderfully here in Dunamaise

Arts Centre.”

The exhibition in Dunamaise Gallery is free entry and runs from 14 March to 30 April.