Ice Before History
31,975 BCE is a modern way of labelling a point almost 34,000 years before the conventional radiocarbon “present” of 1950—roughly 33,925 calendar years ago. It must not be mistaken for a year in which an Irish event can be dated. No written record, settlement sequence, ruler, battle, voyage or named community exists for Ireland at this depth of time. Even radiocarbon dates from this period produce calibrated ranges rather than single calendar years, and cave deposits often preserve material accumulated over long intervals. The responsible subject is therefore Ireland in the later part of Marine Isotope Stage 3, before the Last Glacial Maximum, not an imagined episode on a particular day or in a particular year.