Major Academic Books
William O'Brien (and contributors) 1994. Mount Gabriel: Bronze Age Mining in Ireland. Bronze Age Studies 3, Galway University Press.
William O'Brien (and contributors) 1999. Sacred Ground. Megalithic Tombs in Coastal South-west Ireland. Bronze Age Studies 4, N.U.I. Galway, 333pp.
O’Brien, W. (and contributors) 2004. Ross Island. Mining, Metal and Society in Early Ireland. Bronze Age Studies 6, N.U.I. Galway, 800pp
Popular Books
William O'Brien 1994. Our Mining Past: the Mining Heritage of Cork. Cork Public Museum publication. 23pp.
William O'Brien 1996. Bronze Age Copper Mining in Britain and Ireland. Shire Archaeology. Princes Risborough, 64pp.
William O'Brien 2000. Ross Island and the Mining Heritage of Killarney. Guidebook to the Killarney metal mines, Department of Archaeology, N.U.I. Galway, 30pp.
Edited Volumes
The Journal of Irish Archaeology volumes 7 (1996), 8 (1997), 9 (1998), 10 (2001) and 11 (2002).
Papers in Refereed books and Journals
1987. The dating of the Mount Gabriel-type mines of West Cork. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 92, 50-70.
1989. A primitive mining complex at Derrycarhoon, County Cork. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 94, 1-18.
1990 (with Ixer, R. and O'Sullivan, M.) Copper resources in prehistory: an Irish perspective. In Crew and Crew (eds.) Early Metal Mining in the British Isles, Plas Tan y Bwlch, Wales, 30-35.
1990. Prehistoric copper mining in south-west Ireland: the Mount Gabriel-type mines. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 56, 269-290.
1992. Boulder-burials: a later Bronze Age megalith tradition in south west Ireland. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 97, 11-35.
1992 (with Northover, J. P. and Cameron, E.) An Early Bronze Age metal hoard from a wedge tomb at Toormore, County Cork. The Journal of Irish Archaeology 5, 9-17.
1993. Aspects of wedge tomb chronology. In E. Shee-Twohig and M. Ronayne (eds) Past Perceptions: the Prehistoric Archaeology of South West Ireland. Cork University Press, 63-74.
1993. Early metallurgy in Cork and Kerry. In Past Perceptions: the Prehistoric Archaeology of South West Ireland, 85-92.
1995. Ross Island and the origins of Irish-British metallurgy. In J. Waddell and E. Shee Twohig (eds.) Ireland in the Bronze Age, The Stationary Office, Dublin, 38-48.
1997. Mount Gabriel and metal sourcing in the Bronze Age. Journal of Historical Metallurgy 31 (1), 8-11.
1998. Approaches to the study of metal in the insular Bronze Age, in J. Bayley (ed.) Science in Archaeology, an Agenda for the Future, Proceedings of the English Heritage conference. London, 109-122.
1998. La mine de cuivre de Ross Island et la métallurgie chalcolithique en Irlande. In Frere-Sautot, M. Ch. (ed.) Paléométallurgie des Cuivres, Actes du colloque de Bourg-en-Bress et Beaune, Octobre 1997. Montagnac, 101-107.
1999. Resource availability and metal supply in the insular Bronze Age. In Hauptmann et al. (eds.) The Beginnings of Metallurgy, Der Anschnitt, Beihaft 9, 227-235.
1999. Arsenical copper in early Irish metallurgy. In Young, S. et al (eds.) Metals in Antiquity, Proceedings of the 1995 Harvard Conference. British Archaeological Reports (International Series) 792, 33-42.
2000. Megalithic tombs, metal resources and territory in prehistoric south-west Ireland. In Desmond, A. et al. (eds.) New Agendas in Irish Prehistory: Papers in Commemoration of Liz Anderson. Wordwell, Dublin, 161-176.
2000 (with T.M. Mighall, F.M. Chambers, and J.N. Lanting). Prehistoric copper mining and its impact on vegetation. In Nicholson, R.A. and O'Connor, T.P. (eds.) People as an Agent of Environmental Change. Symposium of the Association for Environmental Archaeology 16. Oxbow Books, 19-28.
2001 New light on Beaker metallurgy in Ireland. In Harrison, R. et al. eds.) Bell Beakers Today, Proceedings of the Riva del Garda conference, May 1998, Trento, 144-160.
2001. (with Northover, J., and Stos, S). Lead isotopes and metal circulation in Beaker/Early Bronze Age Ireland. The Journal of Irish Archaeology 10. 25-48.
2002. Megaliths in a mythologised landscape: south-west Ireland in the Iron Age. In Scarre, C. (ed.) Monuments and Landscape in Atlantic Europe. Routledge, 152-176.
2003. The Bronze Age copper mines of the Goleen area, Co. Cork. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 103C, 2, 13-59.
2004. (Con)fusion of tradition? The circle henge in Ireland. In Gibson, A. and Sheridan, A. 2004. From Sickles to Circles: Britain and Ireland at the Time of Stonehenge. Tempus: 323-338.
2005. La plus ancienne métallurgie du cuivre en Irlande. In Ambert, P. and Vaquer, J. (eds) La Première Métallurgie en France et dans les Pays Limitrophes. Mémoire 37, Travaux, La Société Préhistorique Française.
2007. Miners and farmers: local settlement contexts for Bronze Age mining. In Burgess, Chris et al. (eds) Beyond Stonehenge, Festschrift for Colin Burgess. Oxbow. 20–30.
Other Publications
1988. Koppargruvorna vid Mount Gabriel. In Irland: Den Gatfulla On. Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm, 51-54.
1991. Prehistoric copper mining in south west Ireland. In Ryan, M. (edit) The Illustrated Archaeology of Ireland, 75-78, Country House, Dublin.
1992. Prehistoric copper mines. In Power, D. (ed.) Archaeological Inventory of County Cork: Vol. 1, 72-78, Office of Public Works.
1993. Altar Tomb and the Prehistory of Mizen. Mizen Journal 1, 19-26.
1993. Bronze Age copper mining in West Cork. Irish Association of EconomicGeology Annual Review 73-75.
1993. Bronze Age copper mining on Mount Gabriel. Mizen Journal 2, 27-32.
1994. The Bronze Age: the first Golden Age in Europe. European Heritage 2, 6-10.
1995. Ross Island: the beginning. Archaeology Ireland 9 (1), 24-27.
1996. Archaeological investigations at Ross Island. In Delaney, C. and Coxon, P. eds) Central Kerry. Field Guide 20, Irish Association for Quaternary Studies, 27.
1996. From the Fiery Furnace: Copper Sources and Early Irish Metallurgy. Occasional Papers in Irish Science and Technology 12, Royal Dublin
Society, 16pp.
1997. Early metal mining and its impact on the Irish landscape. In Mitchell, F. (ed.) Human Interactions with the Irish Quaternary, Abstracts of the Annual Symposium of the Irish Association for Quaternary Studies. Dublin, 11-14.
1998. The protection of mining heritage in Ireland. Mining History Society ofIreland Newsletter 6, pp. 11-12 (continued Vol 7, 4-6).
1999. Bronze Age mining heritage. In Mine Heritage and Tourism: a Hidden Resource. Abstracts of conference organised by the European Mining Heritage Network, Nenagh, November 1999. 4pp.
2001. Bronze Age copper mining on Ballyrisode Hill, Co. Cork. Mizen Journal 9, 5-15.
2001. Killarney in prehistoric times. In Quirke, B. (ed.) Killarney National Park: a Place to Treasure Chapter 4, 51-65.
2003 Misc entries: Bronze Age copper mining, Bronze Age metalworking and metallurgy, the Dowris hoard, Mount Gabriel, Ross Island. In Lalor, B. (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Ireland. Gill and MacMillan, Dublin, pp. 130-3, 312, 744-5, 943.
2000. Ross Island and the Mining Heritage of Killarney. Guidebook to the Killarney metal mines, Department of Archaeology, N.U.I. Galway, 30pp. Also published on internet (www.nuigalway.ie/ross_island)
2001. Bronze Age copper mining on Ballyrisode Hill, Co. Cork. Mizen Journal 9, 5-15.
2001. Killarney in prehistoric times. In Quirke, B. (ed.) Killarney National Park: a Place to Treasure, Chapter 4, 51-65.
2002. Bronze Age copper mining at Boulysallagh, Goleen, Co. Cork. Mizen Journal 10, 1-16.
2002. Miscellaneous entries in Mighall, T. (ed.) The Quaternary of South-west Ireland: Field Guide. Quaternary Research Association. 69-74; 83-100.
2003. Bronze Age copper mines at Callaros Oughter and Carrigacat. Mizen Journal 11, 91-102.
2003 Bronze Age mining heritage, In Morris, J. and Parkes, M. (eds) Mine Heritage and Tourism: a Hidden Resource. Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland. Dublin, 51-3.
2003. Early metalworking and myth on the lakes of Killarney. In Fenwick, J. (ed.) Lost and Found: Discovering Ireland’s Past. Wordwell: 185-196.
2005. The prehistory of Killarney. In Larner, J. (ed.) A History of Killarney. Collins Press, 5–15,
