Connemara life extends over 9,000 years

NEW evidence unearthed by a Connemara archaeologist suggests there was a large human presence in the River Corrib catchment area 9,000 years ago.Archaeologist Michael Gibbons says the discovery of two stone axes in Galway city and county suggests there was a Mesolithic pre-farming 'hunter-gatherer’ settlement in Connemara and in what is now the city between 6,000 and 9,000 years ago.Mr Gibbons says the finds are “very important” and show that the popular perception that Connemara, Galway and the West was populated only after Oliver Cromwell’s 'To hell or to Connacht’ campaign is wrong.The prehistoric axe found recently in a garden in Ballybane is one of a whole host of similar artefacts discovered in and around the city in the past few years. “The Ballybane axe is...