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Choose a route into Ireland’s past: follow the newest additions, find a particular year or subject, or browse every available period.
Welcome to Emerald Archives
Emerald Archives presents Ireland’s story one reference year at a time, from the deep prehistoric past to the modern era. Each article explores the evidence, people, places and developments associated with a particular year and places them within their wider historical setting. The collection brings together archaeology, politics, society, religion, culture, conflict, everyday life and changing landscapes in one continuously expanding timeline. New articles appear here as the archive grows. You can also explore the full Irish History Timeline, search the archive directly, or use Explore to move through the collection by period and subject.
Start Exploring
Choose a route into Ireland’s past: follow the newest additions, find a particular year or subject, or browse every available period.
30370–30361 BCE
Maguiresbridge’s Lost Tundra
Derryvree was exposed by roadworks in 1969, when a cutting passed through a drumlin: the streamlined hill of glacial sediment now characteristic of much of the Irish midlands and north. Investigators found two distinct layers of till—material left directly by ice—with silts, fine sands and organic-rich deposits trapped between them. The sequence matters because it demonstrates change. Ice had affected the locality; then, for a time, open water and wet ground allowed sediment, plant remains and insects to accumulate; later glacial action buried and preserved the deposit beneath another till sheet.
