Historical re-enactments and living history are a popular way for engaging the public with the story of past cultures. Whether it is demonstrations of battles and warfare, food, costume or crafts, the process of living history can allow people to gain a real and tangible sense of what life was like in the past. Ireland is fortunate to have a number of living history societies and organisations. One of the largest, Déise Medieval, were integral to the Viking Heritage Day Heritage Week event at Woodstown, on the outskirts of Waterford City. We took the opportunity to chat with some of the re-enactors to discover how they got involved in living history and how it has shaped their view of the past.

In this edition of the Amplify Archaeology Podcast Neil was joined by Denise Colbert (Déise Medieval), Jessica de Burca (Montague Heritage Services), Dolores Kearney (UCD School of Archaeology), Kate Gwilliam (Vikings UK), Paul Kavanagh (Leix Vikings), Ayanna Raiha, Maria Kraing, Clare Horgan (Déise Medieval). Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to speak with me on a very busy day!

Amplify Archaeology Podcast Episode 9 Living in the Past – Show Notes

• This podcast was recorded live at the Viking Heritage Day at Woodstown on the Waterford Greenway, a wonderful Heritage Week event!
• You can find out more on the story of Viking Woodstown with our free audiobook – available from our website, and on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Acast or wherever you like to get your podcasts.
• You can find Déise Medieval on Facebook.
• You’ll also hear fantastic music from Ulfhednar Hird Ireland who provided a blood pumping soundtrack for the battles!
• Here’s a link to Jessica de Burca’s Montague Heritage Services website.
• You can discover more about Dolores Kearney’s experimental archaeology project with textiles from her blog.
• Here’s a link to Viking’s UK.
• You can discover more about Ayanna Raiha’s work in Norse spirituality from her website.
• We’re currently working on a Conservation Management Plan for Viking Woodstown on behalf of Waterford City and County Council and we hope to share some of this work in the coming weeks.

Amplify Archaeology Podcast

During this podcast series we will meet some of Ireland’s archaeologists to discuss the key periods, places and people that tell the story of Ireland, and we’ll gain new insights into the practice and techniques of modern Irish archaeology. This is the seventh instalment of Amplify Archaeology, previous episodes have featured discussions on Kingship at Cashel, Beaker People, History of Food, Passage Tombs, Castles, Mesolithic Ireland and Glendalough.

I’d love some feedback, so please do leave a comment below – and if you have any questions about Irish archaeology please do let me know, we can try to answer them in forthcoming episodes. Finally if you enjoyed this podcast I’d be really grateful if you could leave us a review on iTunes, or please share it and tell your friends.

The podcast is an Abarta Heritage production. It was produced with the support of sound engineer Declan Lonergan in Bluebird Studios, County Kildare.