It has held its secrets for centuries. Now the ground beneath what was once one of Ireland’s most popular music venues is finally giving them up.
Archaeologists knew the site of the former Nancy Spain's pub on Cork's Barrack St, close to the medieval heart of the city, had potential once groundworks started last year.
But no-one expected it to reveal so much about the city’s turbulent and bloody past, or prompt fresh questions about how it was developing around a century after the first Vikings settled on the banks of the Lee’s southern channel.
One site, two remarkable finds from two separate and distinct periods of the city’s fascinating history.
But mystery still remains. This may only be the start of the story.
David Murphy, a senior project archaeologist with John Cronin and Associates, was the first to spot something of interest in the soil to the rear of the former pub as it was being demolished one grey morning last October.
He was monitoring groundworks during the demolition phase, and had his eyes peeled as builders lifted a slate floor and began digging down into a layer of rubble just beneath the pub’s foundation layer.
A 'zone of archaeological potential' in the heart of Cork city
He remembers that sense of excitement and wonder when he spotted what looked like skeletal remains emerging from the soil under the rubble layer.
He called an immediate halt to the work and alerted the relevant authorities.
“The area is part of what was the suburbs of medieval Cork and so is in a zone of archaeological potential," he said.
"It was very exciting to find the bones. It doesn’t happen every day and you want to make sure you follow the proper procedures.
The bones were quickly confirmed as human and the gardaí, the coroner’s office and the office of the state pathologist were notified.
But when the remains were confirmed a short time later as historic, Mr Murphy and his team knew then they would have lots of work to do.
He knew there had been a gallows up the hill centuries ago, and that Elizabeth Fort is nearby.
He was aware too of the role the area played in more recent Irish history, before the rumour mill went into overdrive with suggestions that the bones could be linked to Civil War or the War of Independence executions.
Mr Murphy said the team ignored the wild speculation, rolled up their sleeves and began the painstaking work of peeling back the layers of history to establish what else may be lurking in the soil, and more importantly, what it might tell us about the city and its inhabitants.
Over the next few weeks, they found the remains of six males, all within the footprint of number 48 Barrack Street, the former Nancy Spain’s pub.
All were dated to around 500 years ago. All met gruesome and violent deaths.
Four had been dumped together in a mass and shallow burial pit, with their hands bound behind their back. The positioning of the legs suggested the ankles may have been bound too.
But the archaeologists also unearthed a near 1,000-year-old defensive ditch which has prompted a rethink of what mediaeval Cork looked like.
The bones
While the discovery of the skeletons grabbed public attention, a new report into the archaeological investigation shows that the discovery of the much older ditch structure is of major archaeological and historical significance.
So let’s deal with the bones first.
Mr Murphy, with the assistance of osteo-archaeologist Niamh Daly, worked on the excavation of the human remains.
They initially uncovered the partial and heavily fragmented skeletal remains of two individuals which were labelled skeletons 1 and 6.
They were found directly underlying a rubble layer on the site of the pub, close to its boundary wall with number 49 Barrack Street.
As the excavation progressed, the team unearthed a shallow mass grave containing the fully intact and articulated skeletal remains of four more individuals, which were labelled skeletons 2, 3, 4 and 5.
They were found about four metres to the north-northeast of the first two skeletons.
They had all been buried in a ‘head to toe’ manner - two lying side-by-side facing the same direction, with the other two lying side-by-side but with their heads at the feet of the other two - like four people in a double bed sleeping ‘tops and tails’.
Radiocarbon dating on small fragments of bone taken from two of the skeletons place the remains in the period between 1447 and 1636.
Ms Daly said the context of the burials and the way the bones were found in the burial pit indicates that they were not treated in “a respectful manner” - they were effectively dumped in the grave.
In fact, it was evident that all four individuals were buried in a manner which suggests that the hands and/or wrists were bound behind the backs, and it is likely that the feet and/or ankles were also bound
Post-excavation work is ongoing but laboratory analysis by Ms Daly has revealed that all six individuals were male, and that skeletons 1, 3 and 4 were aged approximately between 18 and 25.
The estimated sex, age and the nature and position of burial points to a military connection for the remains, the report says.
The period of death which has been indicated by the radiocarbon dating was a turbulent and violent time in Irish history, with Munster and Cork the focus of several significant events, including the first Desmond Rebellion (1569 to 1573), the second Desmond Rebellion (1579 to 1583), the Nine Years War (1593 to 1603) which culminated with the Battle of Kinsale, and a revolt in Cork City in 1603.
This revolt, following the death of Elizabeth I, saw the citizens of Cork rise up against English rule and the burning down of what was the precursor to Elizabeth Fort, just 80m from the burial site.
The revolt continued for a month before it was quelled by English reinforcements.
However, there was no evidence of trauma to any of the recovered neck bones, which rules out hanging as a cause of death, and there was no physical or visible evidence of any trauma to the skulls or any other bones - no arrow marks, no axe, knife or sword marks, and certainly no sign of gunshot wounds on the bones.
That is not to say the men weren't executed, or didn't die as a result of an axe, knife or sword wound. There just isn't the evidence there to say how they died.
Apart from some plaque on their teeth, the men were relatively fit and healthy at the time of their deaths.
The burial
The report says that whichever event led to their deaths, what is certain is that based on the nature of the burial positions within the shallow graves “they met a violent and gruesome end”.
It is hoped that ongoing post-excavation work will help pinpoint a more exact burial date.
What is perfectly clear though is that no-one expected the site to yield an exceptionally large defensive cut feature, or a ditch.
The structure, which was previously unknown, measured 24m long, running northwest to southeast, up to 9.6m wide and up to 2.9m deep.
Radiocarbon dating places it in the period between the early 11th and mid-12th century - a time when the city was being developed by the Hiberno-Scandinavians - descendants of the Vikings who had intermixed with native Irish people.
City archaeologist, Ciara Brett, who praised Mr Murphy’s work, said the unearthing of the ditch feature is “a highly significant archaeological discovery” for the city.
"This area formed part of the suburbs of the mediaeval city and is therefore of important historical and archaeological significance."
“The ditch, which is exceptionally large in size, was not known about prior to excavation," she said.
There is no record in the historical sources, neither documentary nor cartographic, of the existence of such a substantial feature in this part of the city.
Previous archaeological digs have shown that the city’s Hiberno-Scandinavian settlers were concentrated in the South Main Street area and at the southern end of Barrack Street.
Excavations at the Flying Enterprise site near the river by Sheila Lane and Deborah Sutton revealed a trackway which dates from 1085.
On the opposite side of the river, the recent excavation of the former Beamish and Crawford site by Dr Maurice Hurley exposed the earliest evidence to date of an organised street layout in Cork, with house levels dated to around 1070.
On the opposite side of the South Main Street, excavations undertaken by UCC at the old Sir Henry’s site, a dig on which Mr Murphy also worked, and excavations by Deborah Sutton and Máire Ní Loingsigh for Sheila Lane and Associates at the adjoining Citi Carpark site in the early 2000’s, revealed similar mediaeval street-fronting houses.
New questions about 11th and 12th-century Cork
But Mr Murphy said the discovery of the ditch on the Nancy Spain’s site raises new questions about the extent of the Hiberno-Scandinavian settlement in Cork in the 11th and 12th centuries.
“The archaeological and historical evidence indicates that Cork’s urban roots tentatively developed during the latter half of the 11th century in an area which straddled the south channel of the Lee, encompassing the northern end of present-day Barrack Street, the area immediately south of Sullivan’s Quay in the vicinity of St Nicholas’ church and the southern tip of the newly reclaimed south island within the reed marsh estuary,” he said.
“While there is a growing body of evidence relating to the Hiberno-Scandinavian settlement on the south island, the actual extent of settlement on the south bank of the Lee is still unclear.
“The presence of this defensive ditch feature, some 300m upslope and to the southwest of the accepted area of settlement, may suggest that the settlement was more extensive than previously thought.” There is an alternative, and more likely theory, though.
It could also be the case that the ditch was dug into the higher ridgeline to help defend this area of higher ground just beyond the riverside settlement, Mr Murphy said.
“The ability to defend the higher ground above the settlement would dispossess any potential attackers of a significant strategic advantage,” he said.
“If this theory is correct, the ditch would most likely extend in an elongated curved manner and roughly follow the alignment of Vicar Street and Tower Street for a portion of its route.”
'The story won't end here'
Various shards of pottery were found in association with the ditch, and the pin of a belt buckle and fibres were found in association with some of the skeletons. The results of tests on the fibres are awaited.
Ms Daly said like every grave she works on, each has a different story and the release of these details of the Barrack Street skeletons, almost nine months after the first bones were found, is not the end of this story. It could, in fact, just be the start.
“The story won’t end here. With advances in technology, the bones may be subjected to further study and analysis using new techniques in the future, and who knows what those tests may discover,” she said.
Archaeologists and geneticists led by Trinity College Dublin have in recent years been conducting some fascinating scientific analyses of human remains excavated from key National Monuments across the country, shedding fascinating new light on Ireland’s first farmers in the Neolithic period 4,000BC–2,500BC.
A study published in 2020 showed how researchers found one male who had been buried in the heart of the Newgrange passage tomb around 3,200BC, and whose remains were were retrieved during archaeological excavations led by Professor MJ O‘Kelly in the 1960s, may have been among a ruling social elite, and was most likely the offspring of a “first-order incestuous union” - that his parents were very closely related.
The study said that such “socially sanctioned mating of this nature” is very rare but has been documented in global studies almost exclusively among elites, and specifically within royal families that are headed by god-kings.
The recent study of these ancient bones from Irish tombs suggests that a similar dynamic may have existed in Ireland during the Neolithic period.
Similar research may in time be conducted on the Barrack St bones, and may tell us more details about who these men were, and how and when they died.
But for now, arrangements are being made for their storage by the National Museum of Ireland where they will continue to hold some secrets.
The archaeologists involved in the excavation of this site are expected to discuss the finds and their significance in detail at a public talk in the city next Autumn.
