It’s been quite a long time since archaeological discoveries have made the headlines, with most of the new information emerging thanks to the drought conditions evident across the eastern half of the country throughout June and July. Much of the…
Pathways to the cosmos—the alignment of megalithic tombs in Ireland and Atlantic Europe
Gabriel Cooney and Frank Prendergast present the context of and outline the approach to this one-day conference organised by Archaeology Ireland on behalf of the National Monuments Service at the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the…
Summer 2018
Apothecary shop found in Dublin
Some interesting features have come to light in excavations directed by Alan R. Hayden of Archaeological Projects Ltd on the site of a new Maldron Hotel on Dublin’s Kevin Street. The clear remains—in the form of latrine pits (one of…
Peter Woodman: an obituary
ARCHAEOLOGIST WHO PUT THE IRISH MESOLITHIC ON THE MAP Peter Charles Woodman: 2 July 1943–24 January 2017 I met Peter in 1966 when his friend Paddy Shannon took me to meet him in the company of Richard Warner in a…
Archaeology of 1916
Franc Myles describes an above-ground archaeological project on North King Street. The ‘Archaeology of 1916’ project arose from a conversation held after an Archaeology Ireland AGM between the writer and Prof. Gabriel Cooney of UCD’s School of Archaeology. The concept,…
Showing the archaeology of Ireland in one map?
Richard Clutterbuck examines techniques for expressing monument distribution. The island of Ireland contains over 152,000 recorded archaeological monuments. That is a lot of archaeology, and it is difficult to visualise how it is distributed around the country. One way for…
Evolution of Gaelic games
In this contribution to the Know Your Monuments series, Muiris O’Sullivan and Liam Downey outline the evolution in recent centuries of hurling, Gaelic football and camogie. Games unique to Irish culture, in particular hurling, Gaelic football and camogie, have been…
The Garryduff gold bird
Daniel Breen describes a lovely artefact from Cork Public Museum The Garryduff gold bird has a special connection with Cork Public Museum. Not only was it unearthed in the same year as the Museum’s opening but also the excavation was…
The last acquisition
Mary Cahill describes an interesting curatorial dilemma. Just before I retired from the National Museum of Ireland at the end of June this year I had the opportunity to complete a final acquisition that proved to be one of the…