Recent news on Celtic history or archaeology around the world.

Archaeologists bogged down in Ceide Fields row.
A heated dispute over the age of north Mayo’s Ceide Fields has taken a new twist, with the archaeologist who said the complex is 2,500 years younger than previously thought standing over his theory.

It’s one of Ireland’s most important prehistoric sites, but you may not have heard of it.
Rathcroghan in Co Roscommon is “one of the most important prehistoric and early medieval landscapes in all of Ireland,” according to Daniel Curley, manager of the visitors centre in the local village of Tulsk. Most archaeologists would agree that the 240 ancient monuments in the area make up an archaeological landscape on par with Newgrange or Tara.

Possible Neolithic Features Spotted in Ireland’s River Boyne
According to a report in a sonar study funded by the Royal Irish Academy, more than 100 possible features in the bed of the River Boyne have been detected near the Neolithic monuments at mid-eastern Ireland’s Brú na Bóinne. Researchers said the features include possible log boats, stone quays, and weirs.

Old Irish ‘clachan’ settlement found in South Australia by archaeologists
The oldest known Australian example of a communal Irish settlement has been discovered in a dusty paddock in rural South Australia.

Traces of 18th-Century Glass Factory Revealed in Scotland
Construction work near the mouth of the Water of Leith revealed traces of the Edinburgh and Leith Glassworks, which was founded in the mid-eighteenth century and demolished in 1912.

U.K. Storms Unearth Bones From Historic Scottish Cemetery—and Archaeologists Are Worried
The burial site, which contains remains from both the Picts and the Norse, is at risk of disappearing due to coastal erosion.

Remains of Scottish revolutionary-era friar identified from clothes
Archaeologists working at a dig site in Stirling, Scotland, were surprised to find the remains of a man dated to the 13th century. Further study of the subject led them to determine that they had stumbled upon a rare example of a friar’s burial.

Tulloch Stone found in Perth helps recreate image of Pict warrior
Archaeologists have carefully recreated the image of a figure on a Pictish stone discovered during a Perth construction project. During ground clearance work near McDiarmid Park in 2017, a nearly two-meter high monolith was discovered, depicting a male figure carrying a spear.

Ireland’s history and survival of pandemics before COVID-19.
This is not Ireland’s first pandemic. It is not even Ireland’s first pandemic this century. 

The unlucky internees during Ireland’s WWII “Emergency”
The Irish government, though, was deathly afraid of some sort of collusion between the IRA and Nazi Germany. Both Northern and Southern Ireland government agents picked up suspected Republicans and put them behind bars or concentration camp wire for years.

Angus golf club celebrating little-known history
Golf historian Neil Laird is celebrating Forfar Golf Club’s credentials. The 149-year-old golf club boasts the world’s first purpose-built 18-hole golf course in continuous use and the first course in Scotland to have 18 holes by original design.

How Scotland’s martyrs for democracy were written out of history
The radicals of late 18th and early 19th-century Scotland were inspired by the French Revolution and Thomas Paine’s book Rights of Man to campaign for greater democracy at a time when the country had only a few thousand voters.

How Dunkirk Saved Ireland
Germany had plans for an invasion. Specific details about landing sites and number of infantry divisions, as well as estimated dates of capitulation, had recently come to light. With or without the help of the IRA, Germany had eyed Ireland as a convenient launch point to threaten Britain.