List 229: Irish and English Dendrochronology

These results cover dating undertaken since the last published list of dated building from Ireland (Brown (2002)); one English church building is also included in the list. Thanks are due to the owners of the buildings and especially to everyone who assisted in taking of the samples: Phil Barrett, Sapphire Mussen, Charles Lyons, Jon Pilcher and Mike Baillie, Amanda Pedlow, Caimin O’Brien and Martin Timoney. Most of the descriptions of the buildings are taken from the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage http://www.buildingofi reland.ie/. The correlation values were generated by CROSS84 (Munro, 1984), which provides a signifi cance level for the date to be correct; *** (extremely signifi cant), ** (very signifi cant), * (signifi cant), nsm (not signifi cant). Estimated felling date ranges are based on the Belfast sapwood estimate of 32 ± 9 years. Date ranges have been calculated by adding and subtracting 9 years from the calculated estimated felling dates. Timbers from the following buildings could not be dated. Cork: St Finbarre’s Cathedral (W 675 715); Dublin: Christchurch Cathedral (O 152 341); Galway: Cloghan Castle (M 972 119); Kilkenny: Rothe House (S 506 563); Offaly: Boveen House (S 075 956); Waterford: Christchurch Cathedral (S 616 121). Generally only single oak samples were recovered from these structures. References: D.Brown, ‘Dendrochronological dating building from Ireland’, VA 33 (2002), 71–3; M. Munro, ‘An improved algorithm for crossdating tree-ring series’, Tree-Ring Bulletin 44 (1984), 17–27.

Beckett and Performance

The recent interest in genealogical criticism in Beckett Studies, fuelled by the reading notes that Beckett compiled in the 1920’s and 1930’s, has led to a particular focus on Beckett’s formative years, and on the intersections between his work, especially the novels and early criticism, and his intellectual reading. While this has produced much valuable and fascinating matrial, perhaps it is time to return to the works themselves, and especially, to the theatre. Having just published a book on Performing Embodiment in Samuel Beckett’s Drama (London, Routledge, 2010), I would like to develop further the area of presence and performance in Beckett’s theatre. Performance studies and phenomenology have offered new ways of approaching the ontology of performance in Beckett’s theatre, and I intend to analyze this, with particular reference to specific productions of Beckett’s plays. Firstly, I want to look at some of Beckett’s own comments about particular performances / productions (for example in the Barbara Bray correspondence, Trinity College Dublin), and, secondly, to analyze from the perspective / experience of an audience member a number of performances by (mainly Anglophone) ‘Beckett actors’, including Billie Whitelaw and David Warrilow. Drawing on recent discussions of presence and performance (Jane Goodall, Cormac Power), I will offer some reflections on the complexity of presence (of persona and performer, of body and voice) and its haunting power in performances of Beckett’s drama.

Track displacement and energy loss in a railway embankment

The mainline railway track between Dublin and Belfast was constructed during the 1850s, with substantial lengths of railway embankment constructed over soft, peaty soils. In recent years Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) has noticed that the sections of the railway track constructed on these peaty soils have been deteriorating at an increasing rate. Train speeds have been reduced in response to concerns that cyclic track displacements appear to be increasing over time in response to train loading. Track maintenance has also increased significantly. The research described in this paper was undertaken to quantify the response to cyclic train loading of two portions of this track founded on peaty soils. Track displacements were recorded using a sensor system specifically created for this project. The sensor consisted of a photosensitive array, mounted on the sleepers, and a laser, which was targeted onto the photosensitive array from a location outside the area of influence of train loading. Track deflections from 5 to 20 mm were measured under train speeds from near zero to over 120 km/h. The temporal variation in track displacement was used to calibrate an analytical (Winkler) model. This analysis suggests that the deformation of the embankment under train loading was not due to dynamic excitation but rather to static deformation of the poor-quality fill and soft foundation materials. As a consequence, the analytical model highlighted that train speed has limited effect on the magnitude of the deflection of the embankment within NIR operating speeds, but has the potential to significantly reduce the power lost to the damping within the embankment and subgrade.