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Postgraduate Research

Postgraduate Research

The Department of Archaeology in UCC is a leading centre of research, with a strong publication record and academic staff whose work is widely recognised in Ireland and abroad. Our research largely focuses on different aspects of Irish archaeology in a broader European context, from prehistory to the late historic period. Much of our research has a strong international dimension with a number of overseas projects. The department has impressive strengths in archaeological fieldwork, running several landscape projects and research excavations. We also have a strong tradition in material culture studies and in scientific areas such environmental archaeology and osteoarchaeology.

Our work is organized around a series of research groups, which are focused on different themes that reflect common interests and allows for collaborative work. We currently have seven Research Groups in the Department, the directors of which are leading specialists in their respective fields. Each group comprises core staff and postgraduate students working on various projects connected to agreed research themes.

Archaeology students wishing to pursue postgraduate research in UCC may register for a two-year M.Phil. degree or a four-year Ph.D. These are full-time programmes that require a serious commitment from students interested in a career in archaeology. Those wishing to apply to these research programmes must have strong academic qualifications and be highly motivated, with a keen interest in archaeology and a desire to contribute to knowledge in the discipline.

Recent Postgraduate Research

Following is a list of recent research theses and MA dissertations submitted at the Department of Archaeology (alphabetically by year, since 2009).

For a complete list of department theses, please visit our Theses Collection page.

2019
  • Burlot, Aurelien
    Ireland and France in the third Millennium BC (PhD)
  • Colbert, Kate
    Medieval grave slabs in south-east Ireland (PhD)
  • Harris, Caen
    Industrial archaeology of brewing in early modern Ireland (PhD)
  • O'Riordan, Edward
    The perception of ringforts in Early Modern Ireland (PhD)
2018
  • Kearney, Kevin
    Investigations of human-environment interactions on the Iveragh Peninsula, County Kerry, South-West Ireland (PhD)
  • Lyons, Susan
    Wood use and woodland management in Medieval Ireland: An environmental and landscape study (PhD)
  • O'Sullivan, Clare
    Aspects of rock art conservation in south-west Ireland
  • Talbot, Thomas
    The Earliest Church Sites in Ireland AD 400 – 550: Landscape archaeology and the process of conversion (PhD)
2017
  • O'Sullivan, Ciarraí
    Territory and Community in Early Medieval Ireland: A Landscape Archaeology of the Túatha of Uí Chonaill, Co Limerick (MPhil)
2016
  • Collins, Tracy
    An archaeology of female monasticism in Medieval Ireland (PhD)

  • Dolan, Robert
    The prehistoric barrows of Co. Limerick (MPhil)

  • Higgins, Michelle
    Place-names and archaeology of early ecclesiastical settlement in Cork and 'The Decies' (MPhil)

  • Lineen, James
    Spearheads of the Irish Bronze Age (PhD)

  • O'Driscoll, James
    The prehistoric hillforts of Co. Wicklow (PhD)
2015
  • Beatty, Katherine (PhD)
    Skin and Bone: The face in the archaeological imagination
  • Curtin, Niamh (PhD)
    Pottery production and consumption in Ireland in the twelfth/sixteenth centuries
2014
  • Boazman, Gill (PhD)
    Theme and Variations: Christianity and regional landscapes in early medieval Ireland
  • Brea, Alejandro Manteiga (MPhil)
    Bronze hoarding and metal circulation in the Atlantic Bronze Age
  • Brewster, Ciarán (PhD)
    A craniometric study of population dynamics and social organisation in the European Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic
  • Callaghan, Francesca (MPhil)
    Bodies Beneath, Betwixt and Between. A Theoretical Reassessment of the site of Cloghermore Cave
  • Coleman, Adel (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    Liam de Paor's excavations of the early medieval enclosure at Back of the Hill, Co. Longford, 1967
  • Geaney, Maire (PhD)
    Medieval carpentry in Ireland: Continuity and change
  • Gleeson, Patrick (PhD)
    Landscapes of Kingship in Early Medieval Ireland, AD400-1150
  • Hawkes, Alan (PhD)
    Fulachtaí Fia, burnt mounds and infrastructural archaeology in Ireland
  • Lynch, Linda (PhD)
    An assessment of health in Post-medieval Ireland: 'One vast lazar house filled with famine, disease and death'
  • Martin, Rebecca (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    A palaeoparasitic approach to bioarchaeology: Examining human intestinal nematodes & their place within the archaeological record
  • O'Brien, Derek (MPhil)
    The importation of building and other stone in Ireland, c.1170-1400AD
  • O'Brien Butler, Ciara (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    Which Doctor: An archaeology of medical intervention
  • O'Donnell, Jennier (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    Embarrassing Bodies? Voyeurism, Manipulatiuon and Exploitation of Corporeal 'Difference'
  • Organ, Neil (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    The portrayal of archaeological excavation in the Irish media
  • Rondelez, Paul (PhD)
    Iron working in Late Medieval Ireland, AD1200-1600
  • Sharpe, Seán (MPhil)
    An analysis of the lithic assemblage from Slieve Breagh, Co. Meath
  • Sheehan, Donncha (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    A review of court tomb excavation in Ireland
  • Tesorieri, Mara (PhD)
    Health in the Medieval World: Regionality and the bioarchaeology of Ireland and Britain
  • Walsh, Breda (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    Waterford City excavations between 1993 and 2010 with reference to sites of Anglo-Norman significance (c.1170-1375) and their use in promoting the City's heritage
  • Wiegand, Jane (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    A methodological study of the use of photogrammetry and articular surface area in reassociating disarticulated remains
  • Vantrimpont, Julia (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    Rage against the machine: Structural and interpersonal violence in an archaeological context
2013
  • O'Mahony, Daniel (MPhil)
    The Christianization of the Hiberno-Scandinavians: A comparative analysis 
  • Brennan, Cormac (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    The Influence of the Harvard Archaeological Expedition on the Excavation of Enclosed Sites in Ireland
  • Colbert, Margaret (MA Archaeological Excavation)          
    The Excavation at Centocor Barnahely, Co. Cork
  • McCarthy, Bernadette (PhD)
    Monasticism and its limits: Rematerialising monastic space in Early Medieval Ireland
  • Murray, Keith (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    The Contribution of Archaeological Excavation to the Knowledge of First World War Battlefields
  • Schafer, Killian (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    Cork City Walls: An Assessment Using Excavations and Other Sources
  • Sullivan, Sarah (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    A Review of Crannog Excavation
2012
  • Ahern, Shaun (MPhil)
    Ring-ditch monuments in Ireland
  • Boyle, Sean (MA Archaeological Excavation)       
    The advantages and disadvantages of using gaming software, specifically Sandbox 2, to model the archaeological sites Lisnacaheragh and Lisnamaroe
  • Coleman Collin, Thomas (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    Impact of Taphonomic Processes on the Preservation and Excavation of Human Remains
  • Cronin, Susan (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    Our Fractured Past: A Comparison of Trauma in Three Later Medieval Irish Populations
  • Dempsey, Carol (MPhil)
    Neolithic stone axe sources, production and exchange in the Lough Gur area
  • Gaffney, Gereme (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    The Cicken or the Egg?  Understanding the Complex Development of Musculoskeletal Stress Markers in Medieval Ireland
  • Keating, Con (MA Archaeological Excavation)     
    The Development of Cork City from the Earliest Times to 1700 AD
  • Kennedy, Tacy (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    Sex Estimation of Irish Archaeological Skeletons Using Postcranial Metrics
  • McCormack, Gillian (MA Archaeological Excavation)        
    John Hunt's excavations of platform ringfort at Ballingarry, Co. Limerick, 1949-51
  • McHugh, Zoe (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    An Investigation of Standards for Establishing Age-at-Death of Infants and Children
  • Motherway, Ella (MPhil)
    LiDAR and its potential contribution to archaeological survey in Ireland
  • Mulcahy, Fiona (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    Face Down.  A study on the Practice of Prone Burial in Ireland
  • Powell, Emma (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    A Study into the Role of the Community in Archaeological Excavation
  • Rossiter, Aisling Teresa (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    The Archaeology of Pits: Approaches to Identification and Interpretation of Pits on Archaeologial Excavations
2011
  • Boland, Sharon (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    The Conservation and Public Presentation of Excavated Early to High Medieval Ecclesiastical Sites in Ireland
  • Chambers, Colm (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    Excavation Strategies for Archaeological Sites in Intertidal and Estuarine Environments
  • Elliott, John (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    Excavations of the Town Walls of Limerick
  • Hennessy, Deirdre (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    The Neolithic House in Ireland: Re-interpreting the excavated evidence using Ethnographical Information
  • Looney, Peter (MPhil)
    Early Neolithic pottery in Munster; a review
  • Lynch, Elaine (MPhil)
    A study of Grooved Ware in Ireland
  • Lyons, Heather (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    Archaeological Excavation and the Internet
  • Mullins, Clare (PhD)
    Bodies of belief: Ideas, materiality and the body as a state of social meaning
  • Ó Raghallaigh, Cian (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    The Cultural Landscape Settings of Prehistoric Sites Excavated on the M8 Cashel to Mitchelstown Road Scheme
  • O'Connor, Ellen (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    Digital Applications in Archaeological Excavation: current and future
  • O'Sullivan, Johanna (PhD)
    The Viking Age glass beads of Ireland in their North Atlantic context
  • Power, Orla (MPhil)
    Early Medieval corn-drying kilns and their archaeobotanical content
  • Roche, Elaine (MA Archaeological Excavation)
    Health and Safety in Archaeological Excavation in Ireland
  • Turk, Maria Elena (PhD)
    Society, Class and Dissent.  The Archaeology of the Model Village Movement in Nineteenth Century Ireland
2010
  • Barrett, Marie-Therese (MPhil)
    A Study of Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Sites in County Limerick
  • Barry, Edel (MPhil)
    The Archaeology of Narrow Gauge Railways in Munster
  • Barry, Philippa (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    All in Not Lost: Interpreting the looted remains of adult and child burials from Middle Horizon Peru
  • Daly, Niamh (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    Embodied Identity:  Bone Chemistry of a Viking Burial
  • Feen, Aoife (MPhil)
    Stone circles as funery monuments in Bronze Age Ireland and Britain
  • Fuller, Brenda (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    Memory Enshrined: A Study of Irish Roadside Memorials
  • Gantley, Michael (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    Burning Issues: Cremetion in Early Bronze Age Ireland
  • McLeod, Stephen (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    "Off with his Head": A Case for Violence in Early Medieval Ireland
  • O'Connor, Laura (MPhil)
    Planning Control and Urban Development in Nineteenth Century Munster
  • O'Donoghue, Liam (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    "What science is saying about Ireland": The Dublin Anthropometric Laboratory and physical anthropology in Victorian Ireland
  • O'Driscoll, James (MPhil)
    An Archaeo-geophysical Survey of the Garranes Ringfort landscape, Co. Cork
  • Smith, Suzanne (MPhil)
    Palynological and Archaeological Evidence for Human Activity during the Iron Age in Ireland
2009
  • Hurley, Jane (MPhil)
    A Regional Study of the Social Archaeology fo the Demesne Landscape of North Cork
  • McEnery, Kirean (MPhil)
    The Archaeology of Medieval Bridges in Ireland
  • Mills, Andrew (MPhil)
    A Critical Examination of the Hilltop Enclosures in the Munster Region
2008
  • Niamh Carty (MA Human Osteoarchaeology)
    'The mortuary practices of a 19th century Irish cemetery: St. Annes, Shandon, Cork City
  • Michael Connolly (PhD)
    'The Prehistoric Settlement of the Lee Valley, Tralee, Co. Kerry: A Landscape Perspective'
  • Yvonne Graham (MA Human Osteoarchaeology) 
    'Deviant Bodies: An investigation of the burial of adults in cillíní'
  • Matthew Lester (MA Human Osteoarchaeology) 
    'The Walking Wounded: Osteobiography and the campained soldier'
  • Jason Murphy (MA Human Osteoarchaeology) 
    'A study into the prevalence of upper and lower respiratory tract infection in 19th century Ireland'
  • Darren Regan (MA Human Osteoarchaeology) 
    '"Open the window and let me breathe"; The bioarchaeology of tuberculosis and its affect in 19th century Cork County and City'
  • Catherine Sinnott (MA Human Osteoarchaeology) 
    A bioarchaeological analysis of the aging of foetal and neonatal remains from nineteenth century Ireland
  • Aileen Tierney (MA Human Osteoarchaeology) 
    'Death and Commemoration: The Irish Travelling community'

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