Call for Papers – IAI Conference 2023

The annual IAI conference 2023 will take place on Friday 24 th March to Saturday 25 th March at the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel in Dublin D22 X5N7. The theme is Essential Archaeology: Recent Excavations and Research. The call for papers is now open and will close on Monday 3 rd February 2023. If you would like to submit a presentation or poster, please contact the conference organiser Elaine Lynch (elainelynch113[at]gmail.com) with title and abstract of no more that 200 words. Presentations should be between 15-20minutes in length. We look forward to hearing from...

IAI Photography Competition – Belfast 2022

The IAI is running its Photography Competition again this year. We would invite members to submit photographs that represent aspects of Irish archaeology, and can include pictures of monuments, artefacts, or work in the field or lab. There are 5 prizes up for grabs and will be awarded in the form of One4All gift cards 1st Prize: €100 4 Runners-up Prizes: €50 each. Photographers should obtain permission to enter an image, especially from individuals that appear in it. The IAI will not be able to validate each entry – submission will be taken as permission. This year, your best entries will be used to enhance the IAI website. If the entrant wishes, they can send a brief caption to accompany the image when it is posted. Please do not give detailed names or locations. Entry to the competition grants the IAI permission to use photographs online. A panel of judges from the Board of the IAI will select the winners. All submissions to media@iai.ie. Closing date for entries is 21st March...

General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill

Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the above Bill has been taking place at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. This should be of concern to all archaeologists working in Ireland. The General Scheme of the Bill is available HERE. So far, hearings have taken place on the 27th January and the 3rd February and the 17th February. These Joint Committee hearings are available to view by clicking each date or as transcripts on the links below: Transcript – Thursday, 27 Jan 2022 (oireachtas.ie) Transcript – Thursday, 3 Feb 2022 (oireachtas.ie) Transcript – Thursday, 17 Feb 2022 (not available yet) All sessions are worthy of attention by professional archaeologists in Ireland. The  IAI Board has made a submission on behalf of the membership to this Joint Oireachtas Committee and is available to view HERE. The introduction of revised archaeological legislation is long-overdue and to be welcomed. We each have a responsibility to see that the newly proposed Bill is extensive, comprehensive and that it can be implemented...

Board positions

Currently the IAI Board is seeking to appoint an IAI News Editor as a full board member, and also a GDPR Compliance Officer. The latter may be an IAI member of any grade with prior experience of GDPR compliance within a company or organisation. We are also seeking full members to join the board as Vice-Chair or Conference Organiser (both positions from mid-2022 onwards). All expressions of interest should be sent to chair[@]iai.ie       [Feb 2022]...

IAI Post-Excavation Workshop

The IAI is aware that there has been a significant rise in the number of excavations now taking place and the resulting post-excavation work. We feel it is timely to discuss with all members, specialists and practitioners the processes and requirements of post-excavation work for accessioning material to the NMI and NMS archive, to ensure that they are fully aware of these requirements and of the potential costs, time, and obligations arising from the license conditions, so that these are covered in the overall tendering process and costing of excavations. The IAI wants to ensure that everyone is working to the same standards, and we would like to look into ways of making things easier and more cost effective (potentially organising to bulk buy boxes, issues around sourcing materials such as paraloid owing to Brexit, etc). The Institute is proposing to convene an afternoon workshop, to be held at 2pm Saturday November 20th, which will review current practices to ensure consistency across the profession, to discuss potential issues and if necessary, formulate a working document for consultation with the NMS archive section and the NMI. The event will count towards CPD and restrictions allowing this will be an in person event. In order to gauge potential numbers could all interested parties please respond via iaiarchaeology@gmail.com using the subject line ‘Workshop’, no later than Wednesday 17th November, in addition if you could also indicate in any response whether your preference is for an online event or in-person, in order for us to make...