Ancient skeletal remains uncovered by road workers near Terryland Castle in Galway earlier this month may have been 17th-century soldiers in Oliver Cromwell's army.
Jim Higgins, heritage officer with Galway City Council, compared the significant find to the recent discovery of King Richard III's skeleton in Leicester, England.
"With Richard III, we had a fair idea that it was there," he told the Irish Independent, "but with this case we have a lot more skeletons, which will give us a lot more information. It's a fantastic find.
"They (the skeletons) are in a row, it looks as if they have been buried very deliberately. There are three definite skeletons and then a scatter of bones. I'd imagine there are more to be found."
Added Mr Higgins: "The first thing we'll be looking for will be buckshot marks or injuries. The great fascination is always how did they die?"
Archaeologists believe one possible explanation is that the remains belong to British soldiers from the Williamite battle in 1691, which had recorded casualties in the area. A small skirmish between Irish forces and Cromwellian troops in 1651 is also possible.
A second possibility is that skeletons belong to family members of the Earl of Clanricarde. According to the Independent, the remains were found 75 metres from Terryland Castle, where the earl used to spend time praying in a small chapel near the castle.
The remains will be examined on site next week before being removed to a laboratory for further forensic testing.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.SAirish | Feb 19, 2013, 03:08 AM EST
Seanmor, just to finish your story, Cromwell's head was cut off after his dead body had been hanged. The trunk was buried at Tyburn and his head was placed on a pike on top of Westminster Hall, which is next to the Houses of Parliament. Cromwell's head stayed there until about the mid 1800's when it was blown to the ground during a fierce gale. A solder sold the head for the price of a drink and it ended up being cemented into a wall at Cambridge University. it is still there.
curtisjohnson | Feb 18, 2013, 08:12 PM EST
Cromwell was an oligarch/dictator in the guise of a parliamentarian.
anglo-norman | Feb 18, 2013, 03:12 PM EST
Cromwell was a republican.
Joe Kelsall | Feb 18, 2013, 10:52 AM EST
If the bones are returned to London the UK Governent will have them declared 'fit for work'!
Seanmor | Feb 18, 2013, 10:10 AM EST
Few people seem to know that after Charles 11(whose father Charles 1 had been beheaded at the behest of Cromwell)became King of England), English Royalists exhumed the bodies of Cromwell, his son-in-law Ireton and the judge who sentenced Charles 1 to death, hauled to Tyburn and hanged them posrthumously. Thes Royalists were English Anglicans, but Irish Catholics would have agreed with them.
merefalow | Feb 18, 2013, 06:59 AM EST
if they are anything to do with cromwell grind them into pig feed.
Cyn | Feb 17, 2013, 07:59 PM EST
In a row near the castle ruin. Could be the family graveyard. Artifacts must have been found, would be nice to know what they suggested.
curtisjohnson | Feb 17, 2013, 07:36 PM EST
In the end, Cromwell’s primary legacy is facilitating the transfer of real power from the monarch to a ruthless mercantile oligarchy. In life, he dishonestly portrayed himself as a modest person whereas in reality he gloried in the wealth, vanity, and trappings of state (Venetian and other ambassadors provided accounts of his reign). His embodiment of mass murder, theft, and slavery, makes the large statute of him erected before parliament very appropriate. The Hell he and his offspring had the indigenous population shipped to in the West Indies may have been worse than the real article.
anglo-norman | Feb 17, 2013, 06:51 PM EST
Smyrnian-Maybe he's in Heaven.
Smyrnian | Feb 17, 2013, 05:42 PM EST
Cromwell did good? For who? He deserves his well earned place in hell.
anglo-norman | Feb 17, 2013, 05:16 PM EST
jacersagain- a tad dramatic aren't you...
jacersagain | Feb 17, 2013, 04:37 PM EST
I should think that anglo-norman should visit and ask the surviving descendants of the Cromwellan Massacre in Drogheda and other descending survivors of his massacres elsewhere in Ireland and elsewhere, if Cromwell did a lot of good. The pain of loss of the survivors of the massacred people's families and their hatred of Cromwell exist to this very day.
anglo-norman | Feb 17, 2013, 04:09 PM EST
Cromwell did a lot of good as well it must be remembered...
CitizenWhy | Feb 17, 2013, 03:05 PM EST
If they are Cromwell's soldiers, they should be shipped to London and let them decide. I would not want to see them do to these bodies what they did to Cromwell's upon the restoration of the monarchy.
IrelandNorth | Feb 17, 2013, 02:59 PM EST
PS East Galway!
IrelandNorth | Feb 17, 2013, 02:58 PM EST
There was a pretty nasty battle near the village of Aughrim in west Galway, which was considered round 2 of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. It's generally considered to have been a particularly nasty affair, even by the brutal standards of the time. There's a barren place called "Bloody Fields" outside Aughrim to this day, said to be the site of the battle (GoogleEarth it!) "Thorns and thistle grow wherever armies have been!" - Lao Tsu.
jimmybb | Feb 17, 2013, 02:05 PM EST
burn those cromellian bones to ashes
RedBranch | Feb 17, 2013, 01:45 PM EST
'Hell and Connaught' Very funny George. Oh to spend eternity in Connaught.
Portia_O'Neill | Feb 17, 2013, 01:24 PM EST
Sounds like a bit of blarney. It shouldn't be too difficult to track down Cromwell's descendants, he had five sisters.
WoundedKnee | Feb 17, 2013, 10:09 AM EST
Looks like these Cromwellian killers wound up both in Hell and in Connaught!