Professor Muiris O Suilleabhain BA, MA, PhD.
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Biography:
I am currently Associate Professor of Archaeology, Deputy Head of School and former Head of the UCD School of Archaeology (2004-2008). I have also served as Chair of the BA Programme Board (2005-2007) and Director of the UCD International Summer School (1999-2002).
Prehistoric art and ritual form the specialisation on which my international reputation is built. Other major interests include Irish archaeology in modern society and the state of the national archaeological resource. My principal specialisation has focused on some of the more iconic complexes of prehistoric Ireland, notably the great passage tombs at Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth. I am author of The Mound of the Hostages (Wordwell 2005), the excavation report on the earliest known monument on the HIll of Tara, academic editor of Eoin Grogan's , Tara (Wordwell 2008) and editor of the upcoming collection Tara - From the Past to the Future (expected publication date: late 2011). My monograph on the research excavations at Knockroe passage tomb, county Kilkenny, is currently being finalised (expected publication date: Christmas 2011). I have also directed the rescue excavaitons at Ballyvanran ringfort, county Tipperary (1990-1991) and the pre-development excavations of an extensive first millennium AD complex at Haynestown, county Louth (1993).
After graduating from UCD with a BA in Archaeology and History of Art (1978), I studied for the Higher Diploma in Education in NUI Maynooth (awarded 1979) before returning to UCD for graduate studies in Archaeology. For my MA (awarded 1981) I wrote a thesis on The Megalithic Art at Knowth 1. My PhD thesis was entitled Irish Megalithic Art in Context (1988), and I have published extensively on this topic over the years.
Amongst other interests, I was the lead author of a seminal Heritage Council report entitled Archaeological Features at Risk (2000) and one of three co-authors of Archaeology 2020: Repositioning Irish Archaeology in the Knowledge Society (2006). I currently serve on the Expert Committee advising the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on the ongoing Review of Policy and Practice in Irish Archaeology.