Burial

The National Monuments Service's description

The files of the National Museum of Ireland records that in February 2000 human remains were discovered during quarrying operations at Derrygarran, Co. Laois (Cahill & Sikora 2011, Vol. 2, 489-90). The site was reported to the Gardaí at Portlaoise, but the National Museum was not informed until April of that year. The site had previously been inspected by the State Pathologist, Professor John Harbison, and his analysis of the bones indicated that they were the remains of a young adult aged 18 to 25 years at death. A site investigation was carried out by Mary Cahill in April. The skeleton was apparently found at the base of the topsoil, at a depth of 0.3-0.45m below the original ground level. There was no indication of the presence of other burials on the site and it was not possible to investigate the find place of this burial as the area had been completely disturbed. The remains (2000:11) were handed over to the Museum by Professor John Harbison (NMI File).

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload / revision : 10 August 2012

References

Cahill, M. and Sikora, M. (eds) 2011 Breaking ground, finding graves - reports on the excavations of burials by the National Museum of Ireland, 1927-2006, 2 vols. Dublin. Wordwell Ltd. in association with the National Museum of Ireland.