Recent developments in the realm of public and community archaeologies have stressed the need for plurality, diversity, and a lessening of archaeological authority. The mandate for such community engagement is often the well-meaning desire to redress historical imbalances and injustices through prioritising the interests of certain constituencies. Yet the ethics of deciding what history will be prioritised and whose voice should be heard are often left unconsidered in our haste to demonstrate the social value of archaeology. In Northern Ireland, a host of anniversaries relating to the still contested past of the early 17th-century Plantation period lend an unavoidable immediacy to archaeological engagements. Drawing from several recent fieldwork projects, the parameters of a critical, publically-engaged Plantation-period archaeology are considered. The challenges of developing public archaeology in Northern Ireland, where both communities (Catholic and Protestant) have equal voices if oppositional historical memories, has the potential to critically inform the practice of ethical community engagement in other locales.

INTRODUCTION: THE PAST IN THE PRESENT

Public and community archaeologies clearly have their deepest roots in places characterised by structural, societal inequities, and in situations where archaeologists have sought to be inclusive. As such, community archaeology has been generally theorised within a postcolonial, post-processual framework whereby we as scholars and trained professionals question our own position and our right to talk about the past of ‘other people’, often disenfranchised people.