Michael O'Kelly Professor of Archaeology at University College Cork gave evidence on behalf of Dublin Corporation and claimed that the site was not worth preserving controversially claiming it was 'just a hole in the ground'.
In spite of the recent Supreme Court ruling against the conservationists the argument over the so called Wood Quay affair continues. Dublin Corporation has gone ahead with work on the site in spite of claims that valuable archaeological items were endangered.
This was seen as a surprising view for an archaeologist to hold. O'Kelly asks why would you want "to preserve an open piece of rock and mud as a national monument?" He describes the decision by Judge Hamilton to declare Wood Quay to be a national monument as a "bad decision".
He argues that as soon as excavation takes place, destruction to the organic artefacts on the site begins, and that it is not feasible to preserve them.
Michael O'Kelly and Dr. Raftery, Director of the National Museum, are the only two experts to have spoken out against the preservation of the Wood Quay site. O'Kelly describes the objectors to Wood Quay as having "Father Martin, lunatic-fringe, rent-a-crowd set of objections".
