Scoil Bhride

In May 2003 Kevin Barry made a huge discovery. He was out on a bog not far away from our school making a drain with his digger. he unearthed a shape in the peat. He jumped off the digger and looked at the shape. It was a body with no head or legs. Immediately he rang the gardaí. They body was so well preserved in the bog that the gardaí thought it was a recent murder. It wasn't. It was very, very old.

Uncle Peat

• The body turned out to be 2500 years old.
• He was given the name Old Croghan Man.
• Scientists found out loads of things about him and another bog body called Clonycavan Man who was found in Meath also in 2003.
• Old Croghan Man was 6 feet 6 inches tall. Clonycavan man was 5 feet 2 inches and had a kind of hair gel to make his hair stand up so he looked taller.
• Both had been murdered long ago.
• Old Croghan Man was in his twenties. He would have been a giant back then as people were smaller those days.
• He was stabbed in the chest and his arms were cut.
• He was tortured before he was killed.
• The most impressive thing about him was his hands. They were huge and very well preserved in the bog.
• His finger prints are very easily seen and he mustn't have done much hard work.
• The scientists examined his nails carefully and discovered that he ate good nutritional food, mostly meat and vegetables.
• He was probably killed by a new ruler as a sacrifice to their gods or because he was a rival.
• His last meal was wheat and buttermilk.
• Scars on his lungs showed that he had pleurisy.
• Both bodies are in the National Museum in Dublin.
• We went to see Old Croghan man because he was found near our school and is our ancestor.
• We call him "Uncle Peat."