2015:412 - General Post Office, O'Connell Street, Dublin, Dublin

The site was within the General Post Office (GPO) complex on O’Connell Street, Dublin 1. The area had been originally developed as houses in the 1700s and then redeveloped as GPO in the 1814. It was destroyed, except for its façade, during the 1916 Rising and was rebuilt as it stands today in the late 1920s. A new building for the 'Witness History' project centred around the 1916 Rising was to be developed. A single storey in the eastern courtyard with changes to the surrounding buildings had been given planning permission.

In the 17th century, the site of the GPO is shown on Bernard de Gomme’s map of 1673 as a green area to the east of the ‘Abbey Parke’, or lands belong to St Mary’s Abbey. There is no prehistoric or medieval archaeology or history relating to the site apart from the fact that the lands were relatively close to those of medieval Cistercian house and lands of St Mary’s Abbey. Nearby recorded monuments are the buildings at nos. 14 -17 Moore Street to the north of the GPO, which date from the mid-18th century (DU018-390) and a brickworks (DU018-020506). Until the 17th century, the south area of O’Connell’s Street just below Abbey Street would have been under water or intertidal; it was then reclaimed from the Liffey. The area was developed by Henry Moore, Earl of Drogheda who laid out the first streets in the late 17th century. From 1777, the planning body in the city, the Wide Streets Commission, changed the layout of some of the streets between 1785 and 1790 including what is now O’Connell Street. Construction on the new purpose-built post-office, the GPO, began in 1814 and it was opened in 1818. Since that time there have been several re-developments, including a near total destruction as result of the shelling of the building during the Rising of 1916.

Archaeological work under this licence comprised trial testing in May 2014 and subsequent monitoring during development in the later part of 2014. Monitoring of development continued during January and February 2015. The works consisted of the demolition and clearance of the raised area in the centre of the courtyard as well as the surrounding ground slab. Demolition also occurred in both the north and south corridors of C wing and one room of D wing. New foundations and services including sewerage and radon drains were excavated cut into the exposed natural soil levels. Upon removal of modern concrete slabs and floor levels various layers of hardcore and other levelling compounds were found throughout the site. Below this was a natural riverine sediment of gravels and rolled cobbles. There cobbles were larger and in greater concentration to the south of the site, closer to the river.

Several post-medieval drainage features, such as a water management tank, a brick-built drain and a soakage pit, were discovered. Each of these features held deposits within which the majority of artefacts were discovered. Several floor levels and foundation courses of wall were also found throughout the site. In the centre of the courtyard a rectilinear brick structure of indeterminate function came to light. No finds or features of medieval or earlier date came to light.

Ballybrack Road, Glencullen, Dublin 18