Greg Fewer at the age of five. Greg Fewer at the age of five.
Most of my schooling was gained in Ireland in Catholic, Anglican and Quaker schools. My secondary school years were spent as a day pupil at the Quaker-run (but non-denominational) Newtown School, in Waterford city, Ireland. As a point of interest, Irish pop singer Sinéad O'Connor was a year ahead of me when I was at Newtown. Irish historian Roy (R. F.) Foster also attended the school during the 1960s (his father, Frederick, gave me grinds in Irish as I prepared for my Leaving Cert.).
I subsequently graduated from University College Cork (Ireland) in 1989 with a BA (double honours) in Archaeology and History. I then completed an MA thesis at University College Cork in 1993 on 'Land tenure in south Kilkenny, c.1800-1850' - copies of which are available at the Boole Library (University College, Cork, Ireland) and at Waterford Municipal Library (Lady Lane, Waterford, Ireland).
Greg Fewer trowelling at Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal (1989).
I have worked on archaeological excavations in Ireland and Canada at the following sites: Ballyman (Co. Dublin, Ireland, 1983: Late Iron Age/Early Christian), Ferriter's Cove (Co. Kerry, Ireland, 1985: Mesolithic campsite), The Old Garda Barracks (Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland, 1987: post-medieval site), Knockadoon Hill (Lough Gur, Co. Limerick, 1988: Beaker period-Iron Age), Pointe-à-Callière (Montréal, Québec, 1989: Late Woodlandian-20th century AD; now a museum), and the Viking/medieval excavations in the city centre of Waterford City (Ireland, 1990). I also worked with the student team that surveyed the Bronze Age boulder burial at Cooradarrigan (near Schull, Co. Cork, 1988) and provided some slight assistance (over 1985-86) to the Bally Lough Archaeological Project in east Waterford.
This 19th-century windmill at Ballinvella, in eastern Co. Waterford, featured in an undergraduate survey project I carried out while at UCC.
While at college, I performed the duties of second year representative (1987-88) and honorary secretary of the university's Archaeological Society (1988-89). I also sat on the student Class Council of University College Cork in 1988. In the summers of 1990 and 1992, I filled the role of curator-cum-tour guide of Reginald's Tower (then the civic museum of Waterford), serving as a history tutor at University College Cork in the interlude.
I now work primarily as a part-time lecturer at Waterford Institute of Technology, where I am currently on research leave and where I have taught communications, European history, modern Irish social history and local archaeology. I have also lectured on medieval Irish history and and tutored on early modern European history at National University of Ireland, Maynooth, where I attempted to do a PhD in history.
A member (from 1993 to 1998) of the editorial committee of Decies, the journal of the Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society - and its editor for its 1998 and 1999 volumes - I have had articles and reviews published in a range of periodicals including Decies, Old Kilkenny Review, Trial Trench, New Scientist, The Munster Express, Group for the Study of Irish Historic Settlement Newsletter, Mining Heritage Society of Ireland Newsletter, Journal of the Shropshire Mining and Caving Club, At the Edge, Waterford Today, History Ireland, Archaeological Computing Newsletter, assemblage, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, International Longboarder Magazine and Adventures Unlimited (a role-playing game magazine). I have also contributed chapters to the books The Famine in Waterford 1845-1850: Teacht na bprataí dubha (1995; Dublin: Geography Publications with Waterford County Council; edited by Des Cowman and Donald Brady), Digging holes in popular culture: archaeology and science fiction (2002; [Bournemouth University School of Conservation Sciences Occasional Paper, 7] Oxford: Oxbow Books); edited by Miles Russell with a preface by the late Douglas Adams [author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]) and Humanities in Waterford Institute of Technology: essays in honour of Tony Scott (1999; Waterford: Waterford Institute of Technology; edited by Michael Howlett & Shane Kilcommins). I also regularly wrote abstracts for British & Irish Archaeological Bibliography (and its precursor, British Archaeological Bibliography) between 1992 and 2003. A few brief book reviews of mine on (predominantly Irish) archaeology also appear on the Council for British Archaeology's Book Listing Service on the Internet (at http://www.britarch.ac.uk/books/books.html). For further details of my publications, see my bibliography.
Since July 2001, I've taken to a new passion - longboard skateboarding! Still very much a beginner and, preferably, a 'fair weather skateboarder', I can occasionally be seen riding my longboard in Tramore and other localities in eastern County Waterford. Would love to hear from/meet up with anybody sharing a similar interest in the south-east of Ireland. In January of this year, I set up a Rollerblading and Skateboarding Club for staff and students at Waterford Institute of Technology. I've written in more detail about my skateboarding interests here.
Tower house at Dunmore East, Co. Waterford: This site featured in the Local Archaeology course in 1996.
21 October 1996
Greg presented a short talk at the 'Women and Objects' conference held by the Finds Research Group AD 700-1700 (http://www.frg700-1700.org.uk/) on 21 October 1996. The conference was held at the premises of the British Academy and Greg's contribution focused on 'Women and personal possessions: seventeenth century testamentary evidence from Counties Kilkenny and Waterford, Ireland'. Click here to see the text of this lecture.
October-December 1996
Greg presented a leisure course on 'Local Archaeology' at Waterford Institute of Technology. The course comprised eight illustrated lectures and two field trips.
17 December 1997
Greg gave a paper entitled 'Towards an LSMR and MSMR (Lunar and Martian Sites and Monuments Records): Recording planetary spacecraft landing sites asarchaeological monuments of the future' at the '"When worlds collide": archaeology and science fiction' session of the Theoretical Archaeology Group conference, at Bournemouth University, England.
Excavations at Ferriter's Cove, Co. Kerry, in 1985. The director of the excavations, Prof. Peter Woodman, is the third person from the left. This is the second site that Greg Fewer worked on.
February-March 1998
Greg presented a course on local history for the Faithlegg (Co. Waterford) guild of the Irish Countrywomen's Association. The course comprised six weekly lectures covering the history of Gaultier barony in eastern Waterford from prehistoric times to the 1798 Insurrection.
24 April 1998
Greg was elected Hon. Editor of Decies at the AGM of the Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society.
16 June 1998
Greg gave a talk at the WIT Research Forum on the subject of 'Researching women's property patterns in medieval and seventeenth-century Waterford'.
November 1998-September 1999
Greg lectured in history for the following full-time day courses at Waterford Institute of Technology: - BA (Music), BA (Applied Social Studies in Social Care) and the National Diploma in Applied Social Studies in Social Care. He also lectured in communications to students of the National Diploma in Art and the National Diploma in Applied Social Studies in Social Care.
February/March 1999
Greg gave a three-lecture course entitled 'The Internet: research history & heritage' as part of the EU Training of Trainers Staff Development Scheme at Waterford Institute of Technology.
30 April 1999
Greg was re-elected Hon. Editor of Decies at the AGM of the Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society, but retired in this capacity in April 2000.
October-December 1999
Greg gave a ten-lecture course on Internet Publishing for the Dept of Adult & continuing Education at WIT.
16 December 1999
Greg gave a paper entitled '20.7.1969 - The first Moon landing' at the 'Defining moments; material records: the 20th century in retrospect' session of the Theoretical Archaeology Group's annual conference at Cardiff University, Wales.
Double medieval grave at St Peter's Church, Waterford, during excavations in 1987. This part of the site was excavated under the direction of Andy Gittins. Greg Fewer worked on excavations across the road from this cemetery in early 1990. (Photo: Greg Fewer)
October 1999-September 2003
Greg lectured part-time in communications for the Physical & Quantitative Sciences Dept. at Waterford Institute of Technology.
October-December 2000
Greg again presented the leisure course on 'Local Archaeology' for Waterford Institute of Technology's Adult & Continuning Education Dept.
October 2000-June 2001
Greg lectured on background social history for the National Diploma in Applied Social Studies in Social Care evening course at WIT.
January-April & September-December 2000
Greg lectured part-time on behalf of the Dept of Modern History at National University of Ireland, Maynooth, in late medieval/early modern Irish history for the BA (Local & Community Studies) programme of NUI Maynooth's Dept of Adult Education.
October-December 2001
Greg presented the leisure course on 'Local Archaeology' again for Waterford Institute of Technology's Adult & Continuning Education Dept.
26 June 2003
Greg presented a paper on 'Women and brewing in medieval and early modern Kilkenny and Waterford' at the 17th Irish Conference of Medievalists, which was held at St Kieran's College, Kilkenny.
October 2003-September 2004
Greg lectured part-time in European history for the BA (Music) in the Applied Arts Dept. at Waterford Institute of Technology and, on a substitute basis, in history for the Childcare Dept. at the Central Technical Institute, Waterford.
January-April 2004 Greg again lectured part-time on behalf of the Dept of Modern History at National University of Ireland, Maynooth, in late medieval/early modern Irish history for the BA (Local & Community Studies) programme of NUI Maynooth's Dept of Adult Education.
25 March 2004
Greg gave a talk entitled ‘Women, work, and the brewing of ale in medieval and early modern Kilkenny and Waterford’ to the Archaeological Society of National University of Ireland, Galway.
September 2004-present
Greg is currently on research leave, though he teaches a few classes each year in research skills to BSc in Architectural Technology students and archaeology to BSc in Forestry students at Waterford Institute of Technology.
This is the 2nd-century BC Temple of Hercules in the Aventine district of Rome, which Greg visited in April 2006. (Photo: Greg Fewer)
19 April 2006
Greg served as best man at the wedding of his friends, Pat and Mary McInerney, in the church of Santa Sabina, Rome. He also managed to visit a number of the major and minor historical and archaeological sites of the ancient city and stroll across an international frontier to enter St Peter's Square in Vatican City while he was there. When in Rome...
The headquarters of the British Interplanetary Society, South Lambeth Road, London. (Photo: Greg Fewer)
10 May 2006
Greg gave a paper entitled 'Conserving space heritage: the case of Tranquillity Base' at the British Interplanetary Society's 'Archaeology in Space' symposium in London. The theme of Greg's paper reprises and updates his earlier paper on the Moon Landing, which was given at the Theoretical Archaeology Group conference at Cardiff in 1999 (see above) as well as his earlier paper proposing the implementation of Lunar and Martian Sites and Monuments Records at the TAG 97 conference (see above).
This is a typical seventeenth-century house of Brussels with its stepped gable, brick construction and stone string-courses. (Photo: Greg Fewer)
11-14 May 2006
Greg was in Belgium to visit (at last!) his friends, John and Joanna Moore. In the process, he got to explore Brussels and to visit Louvain/Leuven as well as the village of Arschott. Brussels and Louvain retain some of their medieval and seventeenth-century architecture, much of it magnificent in appearance and in the quality of the conservation work involved. There was a tendency for the late medieval town halls to outshine the otherwise impressive churches, cathedrals and abbeys of Belgium's towns, a reverse of the situation typically found in Ireland. Brussels also has a gallery/museum dedicated to comic-strip art, which any fan of Tintin (or indeed many other comic-strip heroes) should visit.
September-December 2006
Greg again lectured part-time on behalf of the Dept of Modern History at National University of Ireland, Maynooth, in late medieval/early modern Irish history for the BA (Local & Community Studies) programme of NUI Maynooth's Dept of Adult Education.
15 November 2006
Greg was elected as equality officer of the Waterford Colleges branch of the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI).
17-19 January 2007
Greg attended the TUI training course for branch officers at the Hodson Bay Hotel, Athlone.
30 January 2007
Greg was interviewed by Spacearchaeology.org's Steve Wilson over a couple of e-mail exchanges in January. The e-mail exchange can now be read at:
http://www.spacearchaeology.org/wiki/index.php?title=Interview_with_Greg_Fewer.
10-12 April 2007
Greg attended the Annual Congress of the TUI in Bundoran, Co. Donegal.
30 June 2007
Greg was best man at the wedding of his brother, Pierre Fewer, and Karen Roche.
15 September 2007
Greg attended the Carlow African Film Festival Symposium at the Talbot Hotel, Carlow.
1 December 2007
Greg's first short story, 'Demon eye', was published in the print version of Aoife's Kiss 6(3) [issue 23].
17 May 2008
Greg led a tour of selected megalithic tombs in east Waterford on behalf of the Centre for the Advancement of Learning of Maths (WIT) for its annual Bealtaine Outdoor Science Festival, 12th – 18th May 2008.
27 August 2008
Marking national Heritage Week, Greg gave a paper at Luke Wadding Library, WIT, entitled 'The brewster in medieval and early modern Kilkenny and Waterford'.
3 November 2008
Greg started work as the equality officer of Waterford Institute of Technology.
21 May 2009 Greg led a tour of first-year Mount Sion pupils and their teacher to the Coumaraglinmountain archaeological complex for the 5th Bealtaine Festival of Outdoor Science (17-24 May 2009). This is organised by the Centre for the Advancement of Learning of Maths, Science and Technology at Waterford Institute of Technology.
23 May 2009 On behalf of the Centre for the Advancement of Learning of Maths, Science and Technology, Greg led a tour of selected megalithic tombs in east Waterford for the 5th Bealtaine Festival of Outdoor Science (17-24 May 2009).
Should you have any queries or comments to make regarding this or any other of my Web pages, please feel free to send me your e-mail at gfewer@wit.ie or gfewer@hotmail.com.
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