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.
30910–30901 BCE
Derryvree’s Periglacial Census
The most informative Irish evidence close to this notional date comes from Derryvree, near Maguiresbridge in County Fermanagh. Road works in 1969 cut through a drumlin and exposed an exceptional sequence: a bed of freshwater silts, sands and organic material enclosed between two thick layers of till, the unsorted debris deposited by glacier ice. The order of those deposits is crucial. An earlier glacier had affected the locality; an intervening period then allowed water, plants and small animals to leave a record; later ice advanced and buried it beneath another till.
Derryvree Mosses, Castlepook Hyenas
The expression “30,909 BCE” should not suggest the kind of dating possible for a medieval battle or an eighteenth-century election. Scientific ages are normally reported in radiocarbon years before present, with “present” conventionally fixed at 1950, then calibrated against independently dated records. Calibration matters because atmospheric carbon levels have varied substantially through time. IntCal20, the principal Northern Hemisphere calibration curve, extends to 55,000 calibrated years before present, but its use does not turn a deposit into an annual diary.
Maguirebridge’s Reedbed
Ireland lay on Europe’s far north-western edge during a period of sharp climatic instability. The great Last Glacial Maximum, when the Irish Ice Sheet expanded across much of the island and onto the continental shelf, belongs mainly to the later interval of about 26,500–19,000 calibrated years BP. Around the notional date used here, its growth lay ahead rather than behind. That does not mean a mild or uniform Ireland. Conditions could be severe, with long winters, short growing seasons, frost-shattered ground and a vegetation cover unlike the modern green island.
