Welcome to the Hidden Voices audio book. The M8 Fermoy to Mitchelstown motorway winds its way through the storied lands of North Cork, crossing an undulating landscape between the River Blackwater and the Galtee Mountains. The road was constructed to bypass the towns of Fermoy and Mitchelstown as part of the upgraded Cork to Dublin national road network. In advance of the construction of the road, archaeologists from Eachtra Archaeological Projects unearthed a succession of exciting discoveries along its route, as they excavated 22 archaeological sites. The remarkable insights their findings provide into life in North Cork across the millennia is the subject of this Abarta audio book, that was produced on behalf of TII.
The M8 is just the latest in a series of routeways to negotiate the shadow of Caherdrinny Hill, one of the great physical and historical landmarks of North Cork. Just as the hill today watches over the motorway, in ages past it kept vigilant eye on the comings and goings of all who crossed the plains and river valleys straddling either side of the Kilworth Mountains. It bore witness to each of those who feature in our story, all the way back to the hunter-gathers who established a seasonal camp at its base, 10,000 years ago. Theirs are the first ‘hidden voices’ whose echoes reverberate through this audio book, but they are far from the last. It takes us from the thud of axes and crash of trees that sounded through the landscape of Ireland’s first farmers, to the anguish, pain and despair that accompanied the deaths of those taken far too young during the Bronze Age. We encounter those who constructed North Cork’s most monumental boundaries some 2,000 years ago, and meet master craftsmen who may have counted Saints among their customers. We will step inside the modest homes of those whose lives were shaped by a new power, the Anglo-Normans, and take our leave with a visit to the equally modest dwellings of the region’s 19th-century inhabitants. Each track of our guide examines an aspect of life in a specific period of history. But it begins with the story of the hunter-gathers and farmers, who were the first to make North Cork their home.
If you would like more detail and analysis of the sites featured in this audio book you can explore the published scheme monograph Hidden Voices: the archaeology of the M8 Fermoy–Mitchelstown motorway by Penny Johnston and Jacinta Kiely.
This audio book was written by Damian Shiels and edited by Neil Jackman, with assistance from the TII Archaeologist, Ken Hanley. It is narrated by Gerry O’Brien and was recorded at Bluebird Studios in Kildare with sound engineer Declan Lonergan and producers Róisín Burke and Geni Murphy.
