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Volume 35 No. 4 Issue No. 138

FEATURES

14 REWRITING THE PAST …

Michelle Comber and Adam Parsons ask whether an artefact from Caherconnell cashel could be the earliest ink pen in Ireland 20 SUSPECTED FOWL PLAY

IN PREHISTORIC ACHILL Eoin Halpin investigates the function of a submerged stake row on the beach at Dugort, Achill Island

24 ON THE LINE

Colm Donnelly, Eileen Murphy, Gillian Allmond, Brian Sloan and Alastair Ruffell share the results of an archaeological investigation of a ‘famine road’ in Drummacoorin, Boho, Co. Fermanagh

www.archaeologyireland.ie

30 MAPPING THE LIGHT

FANTASTIC AT NEWGRANGE Frank Prendergast, Clare Tuffy, Sinéad Gargan, John Lalor and Claire Breen shed new light on the solar illumination in the burial chamber on winter solstice 36 PANIC AT MACDERMOT’S

FEAST Thomas Finan and James G. Schryver seek evidence for a tragic event on Lough Key island 40 GALLARUS ORATORY

In this contribution to Folklore Focus, Marion Dowd records folk beliefs attached to the wellknown early medieval oratory 41 EXPOSING THE

EXHIBITIONISTS Gary Dempsey and Orla-Peach Power share some observations from the Sheela3D project 46 KNOCKROE PASSAGE

TOMBA FRONTIER MONUMENT? In this contribution to the Know Your Monuments series, Muiris O’Sullivan and Liam Downey discuss the siting of Knockroe passage tomb beside a deep gorge that has acted as a frontier since time immemorial 51 NOT WELL COVERED

Chris Corlett reveals a Romanesque remnant hiding in plain sight in County Kilkenny 52 OBITUARY

Niamh Whitfield remembers architectural historian Ian Fisher

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Cover: Direct sunlight in Newgrange burial chamber on 24 December 2020, 09:00:06 UTC: the moment of culmination (John Lalor).

Winter 2021