Aidan O'Sullivan
@aidanosullivan.bsky.social
Head of School/Prof at UCD Archaeology; Early Medieval archaeologist; Director @experimentarchaeol.bsky.social Member Royal Irish Academy; Fellow Society of Antiquaries; Dad of boys; Dog Dad; Hurling/Camogie; IC Member; Own Opinions here
Conall wanted to come for a Saturday morning run with me, but when he saw the grim weather through the door, he snuck off back to the boys’ bedrooms 🤣
November 15, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Conall wanted to come for a Saturday morning run with me, but when he saw the grim weather through the door, he snuck off back to the boys’ bedrooms 🤣
Or go out for a Saturday morning run in the rain? 🏃🏼🙄
November 15, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Or go out for a Saturday morning run in the rain? 🏃🏼🙄
November 13, 2025 at 9:43 PM
3 minutes …
Watching from behind sofa
Watching from behind sofa
November 13, 2025 at 9:40 PM
3 minutes …
Watching from behind sofa
Watching from behind sofa
November 11, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Memories of plunging my hand deep into the very cold peat to uncover Iron Age wooden planks last seen over 2,000 years ago.
In 1986, I started work on my first archaeology dig at Corlea 1, dated to 148/147 BC. I didn’t know then it would be some of the most spectacular archaeology of my career.
In 1986, I started work on my first archaeology dig at Corlea 1, dated to 148/147 BC. I didn’t know then it would be some of the most spectacular archaeology of my career.
November 11, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Memories of plunging my hand deep into the very cold peat to uncover Iron Age wooden planks last seen over 2,000 years ago.
In 1986, I started work on my first archaeology dig at Corlea 1, dated to 148/147 BC. I didn’t know then it would be some of the most spectacular archaeology of my career.
In 1986, I started work on my first archaeology dig at Corlea 1, dated to 148/147 BC. I didn’t know then it would be some of the most spectacular archaeology of my career.
A small gift to myself from eBay for my UCD office - Indy with MP40 Schmeisser to go with his Da, Prof Henry Jones, Sr, medievalist and Grail scholar
"Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky”
Or
“Let’s punch some Nazis”
"Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky”
Or
“Let’s punch some Nazis”
November 8, 2025 at 10:10 AM
A small gift to myself from eBay for my UCD office - Indy with MP40 Schmeisser to go with his Da, Prof Henry Jones, Sr, medievalist and Grail scholar
"Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky”
Or
“Let’s punch some Nazis”
"Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky”
Or
“Let’s punch some Nazis”
Conall’s (mini schnauzer, chief dog of Ireland, etc) photo on the cover of Archaeology Ireland has now been seen in Dublin bookshops and the library of the Royal Irish Academy!
@ria.ie
@ria.ie
November 5, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Conall’s (mini schnauzer, chief dog of Ireland, etc) photo on the cover of Archaeology Ireland has now been seen in Dublin bookshops and the library of the Royal Irish Academy!
@ria.ie
@ria.ie
500 days of practicing my Irish on Duolingo … Cleachtadh laochra mo chuid Gaeilge
November 3, 2025 at 5:28 PM
500 days of practicing my Irish on Duolingo … Cleachtadh laochra mo chuid Gaeilge
Halloween in Ireland in 1832.
“Snap Apple Night, or All Hallow Eve”, by Daniel McAlise
In October 1832 Daniel Maclise attended a Halloween party in Blarney, Ireland and in 1833, exhibited painting at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, showing dancing, bobbing for apples, and other traditional games
“Snap Apple Night, or All Hallow Eve”, by Daniel McAlise
In October 1832 Daniel Maclise attended a Halloween party in Blarney, Ireland and in 1833, exhibited painting at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, showing dancing, bobbing for apples, and other traditional games
October 31, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Halloween in Ireland in 1832.
“Snap Apple Night, or All Hallow Eve”, by Daniel McAlise
In October 1832 Daniel Maclise attended a Halloween party in Blarney, Ireland and in 1833, exhibited painting at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, showing dancing, bobbing for apples, and other traditional games
“Snap Apple Night, or All Hallow Eve”, by Daniel McAlise
In October 1832 Daniel Maclise attended a Halloween party in Blarney, Ireland and in 1833, exhibited painting at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, showing dancing, bobbing for apples, and other traditional games
There’s more… 😈
October 31, 2025 at 5:35 PM
There’s more… 😈
“No Sanctuary
It’s Hallowe’en. The turnip-man’s lopped head
Blazes at us through split bottle glass
And fumes and swims up like a wrecker’s lantern.
Death mask of harvest,
l mocker at All Souls
With scorching smells, red dog’s eyes in the night
We ring and stare into unhallowed light”
Seamus Heaney
It’s Hallowe’en. The turnip-man’s lopped head
Blazes at us through split bottle glass
And fumes and swims up like a wrecker’s lantern.
Death mask of harvest,
l mocker at All Souls
With scorching smells, red dog’s eyes in the night
We ring and stare into unhallowed light”
Seamus Heaney
October 31, 2025 at 12:50 PM
“No Sanctuary
It’s Hallowe’en. The turnip-man’s lopped head
Blazes at us through split bottle glass
And fumes and swims up like a wrecker’s lantern.
Death mask of harvest,
l mocker at All Souls
With scorching smells, red dog’s eyes in the night
We ring and stare into unhallowed light”
Seamus Heaney
It’s Hallowe’en. The turnip-man’s lopped head
Blazes at us through split bottle glass
And fumes and swims up like a wrecker’s lantern.
Death mask of harvest,
l mocker at All Souls
With scorching smells, red dog’s eyes in the night
We ring and stare into unhallowed light”
Seamus Heaney
“It’s Hallowe’en. The turnip-man’s lopped head
Blazes at us through split bottle glass
And fumes and swims up like a wrecker’s lantern.
Death mask of harvest,
l mocker at All Souls
With scorching smells, red dog’s eyes in the night”
Seamus Heaney
Blazes at us through split bottle glass
And fumes and swims up like a wrecker’s lantern.
Death mask of harvest,
l mocker at All Souls
With scorching smells, red dog’s eyes in the night”
Seamus Heaney
October 31, 2025 at 12:30 PM
“It’s Hallowe’en. The turnip-man’s lopped head
Blazes at us through split bottle glass
And fumes and swims up like a wrecker’s lantern.
Death mask of harvest,
l mocker at All Souls
With scorching smells, red dog’s eyes in the night”
Seamus Heaney
Blazes at us through split bottle glass
And fumes and swims up like a wrecker’s lantern.
Death mask of harvest,
l mocker at All Souls
With scorching smells, red dog’s eyes in the night”
Seamus Heaney
Hotter than the fires of hell alright, and dramatic when it's being done, heat, smoke, action - images of iron-smelting at UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture @ucdarchaeology.bsky.social @experimentarchaeol.bsky.social
October 30, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Hotter than the fires of hell alright, and dramatic when it's being done, heat, smoke, action - images of iron-smelting at UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture @ucdarchaeology.bsky.social @experimentarchaeol.bsky.social
In Hiberno-English, “Yerra, I’m after gathering them Halloween turnips from years past, and don’t they look fierce shook?”
October 29, 2025 at 6:29 PM
In Hiberno-English, “Yerra, I’m after gathering them Halloween turnips from years past, and don’t they look fierce shook?”
The original, the ur-turnip from Fintown, Co Donegal
October 29, 2025 at 11:52 AM
The original, the ur-turnip from Fintown, Co Donegal
The dog bits were the best part
October 28, 2025 at 11:26 PM
The dog bits were the best part
An Irish ghost turnip - Halloween Jack-o-Lantern, everytime I make one they look different … 😳
October 28, 2025 at 6:00 PM
An Irish ghost turnip - Halloween Jack-o-Lantern, everytime I make one they look different … 😳
You don’t have to hollow it out of course, you could just carve out eyes, mouth and teeth and use black paint (or shoe polish) to increase the depth and scariness (I have a sharp curved spoon carving knife that helps with hollowing out)
October 27, 2025 at 8:59 AM
You don’t have to hollow it out of course, you could just carve out eyes, mouth and teeth and use black paint (or shoe polish) to increase the depth and scariness (I have a sharp curved spoon carving knife that helps with hollowing out)
This was one my best, we’re carving Irish Halloween turnips today, in homage to the ur-turnip from 1943 from Ballyfin, Co Donegal, in National Museum of Ireland
@nmireland.bsky.social
#Halloween #Samhain #OicheShamhna
@nmireland.bsky.social
#Halloween #Samhain #OicheShamhna
October 27, 2025 at 8:33 AM
This was one my best, we’re carving Irish Halloween turnips today, in homage to the ur-turnip from 1943 from Ballyfin, Co Donegal, in National Museum of Ireland
@nmireland.bsky.social
#Halloween #Samhain #OicheShamhna
@nmireland.bsky.social
#Halloween #Samhain #OicheShamhna
Kevin’s Hurling & Camogie Club in Minor Camogie Final today, 12pm, Dolphin Park
C’mon Kevin’s !
C’mon Kevin’s !
October 27, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Kevin’s Hurling & Camogie Club in Minor Camogie Final today, 12pm, Dolphin Park
C’mon Kevin’s !
C’mon Kevin’s !
Carved at bottom, and I place it over a tea-light.
You can dry them out on a bookshelf and they get creepier
You can dry them out on a bookshelf and they get creepier
October 27, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Carved at bottom, and I place it over a tea-light.
You can dry them out on a bookshelf and they get creepier
You can dry them out on a bookshelf and they get creepier
Years ago, I lectured to First Years on The Age of Exploration.
Once, I drew the Plough (Big Dipper) with chalk on a blackboard & showed the class how to find Polaris/The North Star. I said “Now you’ll always be able to find North”
I sometimes wonder was that the best thing I ever taught?
Once, I drew the Plough (Big Dipper) with chalk on a blackboard & showed the class how to find Polaris/The North Star. I said “Now you’ll always be able to find North”
I sometimes wonder was that the best thing I ever taught?
October 25, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Years ago, I lectured to First Years on The Age of Exploration.
Once, I drew the Plough (Big Dipper) with chalk on a blackboard & showed the class how to find Polaris/The North Star. I said “Now you’ll always be able to find North”
I sometimes wonder was that the best thing I ever taught?
Once, I drew the Plough (Big Dipper) with chalk on a blackboard & showed the class how to find Polaris/The North Star. I said “Now you’ll always be able to find North”
I sometimes wonder was that the best thing I ever taught?