The book is also concerned with the future of this protected cultural landscape and recommends actions to ensure its' preservation."--Cover.

Mythical Ireland embodies the search for a soul among Ireland's ancient ruins, and is an attempt to retrieve something of deeper import from 5,000-year-old megalithic monuments and their associated myths. The book represents a fascinating and engaging journey through time, landscape and the human spirit. Dealing with archaeology, interpretive mythography, cosmology and cosmogony, the book attempts to grapple with a core meaning, something beyond the functional interpretations of academia. In this revised and expanded edition, Anthony Murphy delves further into the many enthralling aspects of this journey. Just how much knowledge did locals have of the secrets of Newgrange before it was excavated? Who is the Cailleach, the ancient hag goddess whose image is ubiquitous in the ancient landscape? What happened to make Ireland's Stonehenge disappear from the landscape? Who were the first kings of Tara? What were the indigenous Irish myths about the Milky Way? Did someone try to steal the Tara Brooch? Why are there myths in Ireland about flooded towns and cities? Lavishly illustrated with exquisite photographs of the Irish landscape and ancient monuments, Mythical Ireland represents a personal and yet universal journey, a quest to reimagine the shrines as empowering and transformative sacred places. Murphy invokes the druids and poets of the Boyne and thus the sídhe of the ancient texts are reawakened for a modern and turbulent world.

An exploration of how brain structure and cultural content interacted in the Neolithic period 10,000 years ago to produce unique life patterns and belief systems. What do the headless figures found in the famous paintings at Catalhoyuk in Turkey have in common with the monumental tombs at Newgrange and Knowth in Ireland? How can the concepts of "birth," "death," and "wild" cast light on the archaeological enigma of the domestication of cattle? What generated the revolutionary social change that ended the Upper Palaeolithic? David Lewis-Williams's previous book, The Mind in the Cave, dealt with the remarkable Upper Palaeolithic paintings, carvings, and engravings of western Europe. Here Dr. Lewis-Williams and David Pearce examine the intricate web of belief, myth, and society in the succeeding Neolithic period, arguably the most significant turning point in all human history, when agriculture became a way of life and the fractious society that we know today was born. The authors focus on two contrasting times and places: the beginnings in the Near East, with its mud-brick and stone houses each piled on top of the ruins of another, and western Europe, with its massive stone monuments more ancient than the Egyptian pyramids. They argue that neurological patterns hardwired into the brain help explain the art and society that Neolithic people produced. Drawing on the latest research, the authors skillfully link material on human consciousness, imagery, and religious concepts to propose provocative new theories about the causes of an ancient revolution in cosmology and the origins of social complexity. In doing so they create a fascinating neurological bridge to the mysterious thought-lives of the past and reveal the essence of a momentous period in human history. 100 illustrations, 20 in color.

The River Boyne flows from west to east through the rich limestone land of County Meath, about 30 miles north of Dublin. Its combination of fertile soil and navigable access to the sea has ensured that it has been inhabited continuously from the end of the Ice Age. It is one of the most historic regional areas, not just in Ireland, but in all of north-west Europe.

* Designed for the general reader and visitor to Newgrange * A guided tour of the best example of a passage tomb in Western Europe Newgrange is the most visited archaeological site in Ireland. Every year around 250,000 people come to the see this Neolithic passage tomb. Designed for the general reader with an interest in Irish prehistory, this book explains the results of decades of excavation and analysis in one volume. It is written in a lively style that seeks at the same time to be authoritative and thorough. Aside from its accessibility and good state of preservation, Newgrange's solstice phenomenon, in particular, has made it famous throughout the world. While it is the best-known ancient site in Ireland, many aspects of Newgrange are not clearly understood; other aspects are just taken for granted: why is there a three meter high quartz wall around its entrance; how does the roof box work; what was the inspiration for its art and architecture? The book is arranged in such a way as to replicate a visit to the site. It pauses over points of art and construction that the visitor will not have had time to examine in detail on a conventional guided tour. Newgrange is the synthesis of years of excavation and research at home and abroad; from the detailed reports stemming from the excavations of M.J. O'Kelly to the current international debate about its construction and reconstruction. This is the first book on Newgrange to draw on O'Kelly's private papers and to incorporate the results of more recent and as yet unpublished excavations. This book will clarify many complex issues that have been addressed in widely scattered publications, using original illustrations to assist the reader, and more importantly, it places the monument in its broader cultural context.

Lush and green, the beauty of Ireland's landscape is legendary. "The Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape" has harnessed the expertise of dozens of specialists to produce an exciting and pioneering study which aims to increase understanding and appreciation for the landscape as an important element of Irish national heritage, and to provide a much needed basis for an understanding of landscape conservation and planning. Essentially cartographic in approach, the Atlas is supplemented by diagrams, photographs, paintings, and explanatory text. Regional case studies, covering the whole of Ireland from north to south, are included, along with historical background. The impact of human civilization upon Ireland's geography and environment is well documented, and the contributors to the Atlas deal with contemporary changes in the landscape resulting from developments in Irish agriculture, forestry, bog exploitation, tourism, housing, urban expansion, and other forces. "The Atlas of the Rural Irish Landscape" is a book which aims to educate and inform the general reader and student about the relationship between human activity and the landscape. It is a richly illustrated, beautifully written, and immensely authoritative work that will be the guide to Ireland's geography for many years to come.

Older than the Egyptian pyramids, older than Stonehenge, for 5,000 years the ancient megalithic tomb at Newgrange in County Meath has housed the remains of Stone Age 'aristocracy', sheltering the spirits of the long dead from the outside world. This book explores the creation, building and discovery of Newgrange. Why did these people spend years building this tomb? How did they move huge boulders miles across hilly country and erect them at the site, without the aid of machinery? Modern archaeological techniques have revealed much about the lives of our Stone Age ancestors, but Newgrange still retains many of its secrets. Exploring Newgrange uncovers, in words and illustrations, the extent, and limitations, of our knowledge of this world-famous site.

In 1973 a sixteen-year-old Irish schoolgirl was sold into marriage by her father. Her groom was a farmer almost four times her age. Despite a pre-nuptial agreement guaranteeing that there would be no sex, her husband raped her repeatedly. He also beat her. Although she made desperate pleas for help, the legal system, the police and the clergy failed to come to her aid. Sold into Marriage is the story of that girl's loveless marriage, as told to journalist Sean Boyne, her rape, subsequent pregnancy and suicide attempt and her eventual escape to London and freedom.

"The Hook Peninsula continues the Irish Rural Landscape series, building on the research agenda established by the internationally successful Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape. Located in county Wexford, this region was the first to be conquered by the Anglo-Normans and its landscape was shaped by the establishment of two Cistercian abbeys (Tintern and Dunbrody) in the Middle Ages. The location of the peninsula beside a major estuary and busy shipping lanes was of vital importance. The Hook figured prominently in the Confederate Wars in the seventeenth century and in the 1798 rebellion." "This compact and highly distinctive peninsula makes for a compelling case-study in which Billy Colfer carefully knits the local story into a wider narrative. An eye for detail and an intuitive understanding of his local community creates a vivid story, while Colfer's obvious love for the Hook infuses the volume with an underlying passion all the more moving for being understated. Ireland, 'an island nation', has at last a volume informed by a maritime perspective from a writer who understands the sea and its formative influence on landscapes and lives. In these beautiful pages, an astonishing array of maps, photographs, paintings, archive sketches and new drawings ensure that the Hook landscape is given a radiant treatment."--BOOK JACKET.

Based on new archaeological finds, this book introduces a novel rethinking of the whole of British history before the coming of the Romans. So many extraordinary archaeological discoveries (many of them involving the author) have been made since the early 1970s that our whole understanding of British prehistory needs to be updated. So far only the specialists have twigged on to these developments; now, Francis Pryor broadcasts them to a much wider, general audience. Aided by aerial photography, coastal erosion (which has helped expose such coastal sites as Seahenge) and new planning legislation which requires developers to excavate the land they build on, archaeologists have unearthed a far more sophisticated life among the Ancient Britons than has been previously supposed. Far from being the woaded barbarians of Roman propaganda, we Brits had our own religion, laws, crafts, arts, trade, farms, priesthood and royalty. And the Scots, English and Welsh were fundamentally one and the same people.