‘Tis the Season to Give

Happy Holidays!

I Just wanted to share a couple little bits of festive fun and photos from this side of the pond – that our team at work participated in.

a) The Giving Tree – This year’s eBay giving tree supported over 200 individuals from birth to adult to make sure they had at least one gift under the tree.

b) In addition, several of us donated food and canned goods to Serve the City. On Wednesday, We taped, packed, hand wrote & decorated cards for 50 Holiday Hampers going to the needy. eBay is gift matching and donating 500 Euro to buy turkey and hams and other goodies for the boxes.

Sometimes you have to #leadbyexample because #charitybeginsathome. 7am start to deliver 50 #carebox for #servethecity #ireland #weareebay Be the #kindness you want to see in the world. #volunteer

Serve the City Holiday Hampers Packing and Delivery 2015

After the dry goods packing on Wednesday, on Saturday, December 19, starting out at 7am, 4 volunteers from Serve the City and 2 from eBay arrived bright and early to finish filling the Hampers with perishables – apples, oranges, bananas, bread, milk, butter, etc.

50 Holiday Hampers volunteering with Serve the City 12.16.2015

Once each box was full to the max, we closed them up and loaded the cars. A quick picture (my list of 7 in hand) and Santa hat on head – and deliveries started.

Overall, 50 surprise hampers were delivered to those living in poverty in the Dublin Area between 9am and Noon. They were so heavy, that they took 2 people to carry the box – sometimes a block, sometimes up several flights of stairs. The Hampers were well received by all I visited – Several elderly homebound individuals (I’m so glad you came! I needed food today!), several that had fallen on hard times (How did you know?!?), and one of whom was a lady in a wheel chair with her autistic son (Thank goodness! I wondered what we were going to do for Christmas dinner!).

The response was overwhelming – and later, we got an email sent by phone from one of the recipients:

hi, I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone for their thoughtfulness and for giving their time to organise the hamper for me. When I opened the box the first thing I saw was bread, I need bread today. Everything will get used especially the ‘goodies ‘.

Included in the box was a personal card from eBay- will you please pass on my thanks to them also.

Happy Christmas to all your volunteers.

(person’s name removed). XXX

Just goes to show – Little by little, we can make a difference. For me – this was the highlight of the season.

Swords Castle – Digging up History (part 2)

Yesterday, I told you a bit about Swords Castle, digging on day 1. Basically, this fortified house / castle is undergoing a series of 2 week long community participation Archaeological digs supervised by Fingal Community Archaeologist: Christine Baker. You can find out more about when they are held and participate yourself much like I did for two days:

http://www.fingal.ie/planning-and-buildings/heritage-in-fingal/swordscastledigginghistory/

The archaeology is in preparation for renovations to be held on the site (some of the modern buildings along the street are to be pulled down) and to allow for further discovery and historical preservation of the location. I decided to join the dig for 2 days and was placed into the third trench.

While Day one was hard going with the digging (hard dry ground – despite the cool temperatures), it rained over night. For Day two this was a mixed blessing. This meant that the soil was softer to dig – but much more muddy and messy. Not fearing the mud, we began tackling the trench and removing layers of soil with picks and shovels. Then, it started to rain. Everyone was quite determined, and kept on plugging away at the trench – having donned rain gear

We continued until lunch, when the heaviest of downpours started. I ate lunch, then went on to explore the Constable’s building which was open and dry inside.

The constable’s building (above) was redone in 1995-1998. They basically put a wooden roof on the building and restored it to the expansions that the Dutch settlers to the castle put in in the 1500’s. The ground floor is all set for storage of food, wine and other goods. If you open the door with it’s massive hinges and go up the circular staircase to the first floor

Massive hinges
You enter into the living quarters. Here you will find a huge oaken door with a wooden timber that is embedded into the wall – and could be locked in place for security in case of invasion.

There’s a huge fireplace with metal braziers with horned dragons:

If you go up again, there’s another fireplace, and a welcoming benched table next to stained glass windows, and above you there’s a gorgeous wooden ceiling with a carved animal type chandelier.

There’s also the Privvy / Guardrobe area (where one would hang the clothes for airing out the lice). One funny thing to note about the Privvy – is that it’s quite set to recline – and that there’s an angled hole (you can’t see in or out) to allow for sound to carry through so conversations / meetings could still continue while they were doing their business.

After lunch the rain continued. Trench 1 had digging halted – they had discovered a wall, but the depth of it (over 5 feet deep) was making it unsafe in the rain.

Trench two where a flag stone floor was discovered was cleaned up and logged:

Trench 3 still had digging continue, but because I didn’t have great footwear – I opted to go under the tent and started cleaning our finds with water, toothbrushes, small dental picks, and the like.

A few more finds from the site:

An old pipe

Wall plaster

Pottery from the 1400’s – not fully baked

By the end of the day – I had to laugh. Two of the “mudlark” archaeologists who stayed out in the weather came in for a well deserved hot cup of tea – and I had to snap a picture… Digging the castle isn’t for the weak.

I’m looking forward to more excavations in the summer, and you can follow the discoveries and finds on their facebook page at:

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=swords%20castle%3A%20digging%20history

Swords Castle – Digging up History (part 1)

Irish National Heritage Week - volunteering to dig Swords Castle Archeology. Despite the hard work and rain, we had lots of fun and interesting finds so far. Volunteers over 18 needed through September 11. #swordscastle #archaeological #archaeology #excav

Technically, Swords Castle isn’t a castle. It’s a fortified house which once belonged to the first Anglo-Norman Archbishop of Dublin, John Comyn, and was built around 1200. The “castle” underwent a few different iterations, first as a wooden palisade and then a stone structure. It’s interesting because the “palace” did house the archbishop’s own knights, a separate tower for the Constable (who was responsible for the day to day running of the location – as the Archbishop mostly came in Summer or on through trips), and had a banqueting hall to the right (now a ruin) and a multi story chapel (once located where the one story chapel from the 13th century is today). The site not only held regular “judicial” practices for the region but also held an ecclesiastical court.

After Robert The Bruce came through Ireland in 1317, parts of the fortified house / palace began falling in disrepair. Use of other parts of the site, however, continued until the 15th century as there are records of retired archbishops being stationed here. Eventually, the castle was sold on to a family and used as parts of orchards.

Today, the castle is undergoing a series of 2 week long community participation Archaeological digs supervised by Fingal Community Archaeologist: Christine Baker. You can find out more about when they are held and participate yourself much like I did for two days:

http://www.fingal.ie/planning-and-buildings/heritage-in-fingal/swordscastledigginghistory/

Trench 1: looking for the remains of the great hall

Trench 2: Looking for the edges of the chapel, and a middle ages floor

The map below might help give an idea of the layout:

Starting out, Trench 3 it was dry, cool, and decent weather. Stephen, the archaeologist seen in the picture, gave us 2 meters instead of the 3 we had planned, because we were short on people power.