City was a place of murder and butchery

[Rachel Dearth]

Murderous City
Fri 8th August 2008
City was a place of murder and butchery


 
GALWAY City and its people, famed for hospitality and their warm and welcoming ways, may not always have been so pleasant to visitors, according to archaeologists who have uncovered evidence of butchery and violent murder in the city centre hundreds of years ago.

Skeletons excavated from just outside the Eyre Square Shopping centre date from the 13th century and appear to have experienced extremely violent deaths.

Billy Quinn, an archaeologist with Moore Archaeological & Environmental Services (Moore Group) said the remains, which were excavated during the Eyre Square Enhancement Project, date from between 1205 and 1305 AD according to recent Radio Carbon analysis results, and were killed as a result of head trauma.

Moore Groups paleopathologist, Camilla Lofqvist, has just completed her analysis of the remains and says that “of the nine articulated but disturbed skeletons excavated from outside the entrance of the Eyre Square shopping centre, several of the individuals exhibited blunt and sharp force trauma to...


http://www.galwaynews.ie/4595-murderous-city