Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo: Report 2011

Works. During the 1980s the cities of Galway, Cork and Dublin had marked significant historical
dates by celebrating the 500, 800 and millennium years in the three cities. The writer proposed to
Mayo County Council that a rural county with roots extending back for at least five thousand years
should designate 1993 as ‘Mayo 5000’ to celebrate five thousand years of rural settlement which
continues to be the dominant form of settlement in the county. The Council agreed and a
promotional programme and a series of events were organised throughout the county. Many of the
events throughout the county were of a one-off local nature but a number, briefly described below
had a wider and more far reaching effect.
An Post agreed to issue a commemorative stamp to mark the opening of Céide Fields and the artist
Charles Roycroft succeeded in accommodating a view of the fields and the North Mayo coastline,
the detailed plan of four square kilometres of the site, a cross-section of the bog and the chronology
all within the confines of the postage stamp.
An international sculpture symposium was held over a period of three weeks where sculptors
working with the aid of local volunteers and social employment workers created fifteen pieces of
earth and stone construction throughout North Mayo. In keeping with the non-nucleated
settlement pattern of Céide Fields the creations were not all created in a sculpture park but instead
were widely dispersed throughout North Mayo. Because the symposium was established as part of
the celebration of the Mayo 5000 it was a condition of the tenders for participation that the
proposed creation should have the potential to survive for another five thousand years, which is why
earth and stone construction was specified.
In order to highlight the opening of Céide Fields in early summer 1993 it was decided that one of the
highlights of the Mayo 5000 celebration should be the performance of a specially commissioned
symphony ‘The Spirit of Mayo’ in the National Concert Hall in Dublin. The symphony was preceded
by a traditional concert of Irish music and dance. The symphony was composed by Bill Whelan,
dancers included Michael Flatley and Jean Butler, among the singers and musicians were Anúna and
Davy Spillane and the concert was produced by John McColgan of Abhainn Productions. Within a
month of the concert in June 1993 Moya Doherty of Abhainn Productions was asked to produce the
Eurovision Contest being held in Dublin in Spring 1994. Putting the same performers ‘on the centre
stage of Eurovision’ Doherty created a ten minute interval act called Riverdance and in their own
words ‘the rest is history’.
The achievement of securing a major interpretative centre for Céide Fields and the celebration of
Mayo 5000 was not without its disappointments. The original project had envisaged the provision of
a regional display area and facilities for study and ongoing research. Unfortunately costs dictated
that these elements had to be excised and the structure functions as an interpretative centre for
general tourism. It was eventually decided to seek a basic research and study facility in Belderrig
and again the County Council with the County Vocational Education Committee with the writer,
Martin Downes and a local Belderrig committee succeeded in securing a grant of half a million
pounds in 1998 on the recommendation of the then Minister for Science and Technology, Mr. Noel
Treacy. This provided two basic laboratories, one for science and one for archaeological research
and another general purpose building for conferences and meetings which also functions as a
Belderrig community centre.
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