Peter Harbison obituary: One of Ireland’s best-known archaeologists

Born: January 14th, 1939

Died: May 30th, 2023

Dr Peter Desmond Harbison, who has died aged 84, was unique in several senses. Although he never occupied a post in any Irish university school of archaeology, he was one of the best-known archaeologists in this country. Through his work with Bord Fáilte as its archaeologist from 1966, he was an effective communicator, both here and abroad, of the sheer enormity of the riches of Ireland’s cultural past, especially of its medieval past. He played an important role in the development of cultural tourism to and within Ireland.

Remarkably, Harbison combined what was essentially a marketing role with a prodigious output of both scholarly writings of the first rank and works for a general readership, which totalled at least 38 self-authored titles and 28 co-authored ones, and papers in at least 363 different publications globally.

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The most important work of this phenomenal productivity was, very probably, his three-volume study The High Crosses of Ireland (1992), the definitive work on its subject. Other ground-breaking books included Irish Medieval Figure Sculpture 1200-1600 (1974, with co-author John Hunt), his Guide to the National Monuments of Ireland and of Other Monuments not in State Care (1970, reprinted 1992), and The Shell Guide to Ireland (1989), the latter two now classic guide books.

Harbison’s other books were concerned with a huge range of Irish art and architecture, and were published on both sides of the Atlantic by, among others, the Oxford University Press, and Thames & Hudson, often richly illustrated by photography by Jacqueline O’Brien and Tom Kelly.

His wide travelling as a guest lecturer was significantly enhanced by his fluency in German, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

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Harbison was elected an honorary member of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI), an honorary fellow of Trinity College Dublin, (TCD), an honorary member of the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), becoming the RHA’s professor of archaeology, and, in 1979, a member of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA). UCD awarded him an honorary PhD in 2022, a nod to the fact that his life’s work was more distinguished than that of many of his university-based contemporaries.

From 1986 until his retirement 10 years later, Harbison was the editor of Bord Fáilte’s Ireland of the Welcomes magazine, which built up a huge international readership

It was indicative of his renown that his funeral Mass at University Church in Dublin was attended by current President Michael D Higgins and former president Mary Robinson.

From 1986 until his retirement 10 years later, Harbison was the editor of Bord Fáilte’s Ireland of the Welcomes magazine, which built up a huge international readership with a print run of 90,000 copies, published six times a year. With a staff of just four, during his editorship, it twice won special awards from the International Regional Magazines Association.

Separately from his writings and editing, Harbison was a deeply committed colleague in charitable trusts associated with Irish heritage. He was from 1973 a member of the Glasnevin Cemetery Trust (now the Dublin Cemeteries Trust), and served two terms as its chairperson. Crucially, Harbison put together the presentation of the Trust’s master plan for the creation of Glasnevin Cemetery Museum to then taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2005, cannily including a reference to the fact that both of Mr Ahern’s parents are buried in the Republican Plot at the graveyard. The necessary government grant, which made the museum possible, ensued.

Harbison was a close friend of both John Hunt and his wife Gertrude, the couple whose famous art collection forms the basis of the Hunt Museum Trust. This continues to be available on loan to the Hunt Museum Ltd, forming the backbone of its collection in Limerick. From the Trust’s inception, Harbison was an adviser to the Hunts, and served from the 1980s as a director on its board. Patricia Hunt, the Hunts’ daughter-in-law, told The Irish Times that “Peter gave his time, expertise, creativity and energy 100 per cent”, right up until 2019, when illness prevented him from contributing further.

Harbison had a very active involvement with the RIA, serving at various times, for a total of 16 years, on its governing council, including as vice-president from 1993 until 1996. He was its honorary editor, advising the council on the RIA’s publications up until 2021.

Harbison was one of the two children of Dr Austin Harbison, the Dublin medical officer of health in the 1940s and ‘50s, and Sheelagh (née MacSherry) Harbison, who, after her husband’s death in 1967, became a tutor in medieval history at TCD.

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Educated at St Gerard’s and Glenstal Abbey Schools, he took a BA and MA at UCD in Celtic Archaeology, and then, on a German travelling scholarship, a DPhil in 1964 at Marburg University. He spent semesters also at Freiburg and Kiel universities. In this period, he met Edelgard Soergel, a palaeontologist from a distinguished German family of academics, with whom he shared a love of classical music. Soergel, according to her niece Marianne Soergel Ahavi, who spoke at Harbison’s funeral, was immensely impressed by his ability to successfully identify, by listening, the main works of every major composer from 1650 to 1850. They married in 1969.

Harbison was predeceased in 2008 by his wife, and in 2020 by his brother Prof John, the former State pathologist. He is survived by his three sons, John, Maurice and Ronan and their families.