Maynooth University students who are undertaking their first year of study on the Kilkenny campus enjoyed a field trip in the city’s newest shopping quarter, McDonagh Junction, yesterday (December 4th, 2013).
Located in the heart of Kilkenny City, McDonagh Junction takes its name from the nearby train station itself named after Thomas McDonagh one of leaders of the 1916 Rising. It is a shopping mall and housing complex which incorporates part of the old railway line that was used for transporting coal to the city from the mines at Castlecomer, and sections of the old workhouse where hundreds of Kilkenny’s citizens-men, women and children- died during the Great Famine.
The students were accompanied by staff from both the Kilkenny and Maynooth campuses including lecturers in Sociology, Geography, Anthropology, Economics , History and Nua-Gaeilge. The field trip was designed to give students a feel for the local environment, to enrich their knowledge of how material space is created, destroyed and recreated over time, and to encourage them to interrogate patterns of consumption in the city.
Presentations by Marian Akerman, General Manager of McDonagh Junction and Coilean O’Driscoil a local archaeologist emphasised the rich history associated with the site. As far back as the fourteenth century pottery was being produced and sold on site, indicating a long commercial lineage. During excavation work in 2005, the skeletal remains of people who died in the workhouse were uncovered. A memorial to those victims of poverty and the Great Famine is now incorporated into the landscaped grounds surrounding the mall.
Students were assigned a series of tasks by the lecturers and will have to present reflections on their learning from the field trip at a special seminar on the Kilkenny campus on December 18th. “A field trip such as this is a way of bringing history and social theory to life for students. They get the opportunity to stroll through the environment, think about its past and interrogate the present.
We are very grateful to the staff at McDonagh Junction for facilitating this field trip and hope to identify new ways of collaborating in bringing social history to life in the mall in the future” said Professor Mary Corcoran who was on the field trip.
The image below shows some of the BA Arts students from the Kilkenny campus.