J Roy Soc Antiq Ir 128

An early- to mid-seventeenth-century burial with a north/south alignment was discovered in archaeological excavations at St Peter's Church in Waterford City. An explanation for this apparently unusual alignment is offered in terms of the possible religious identity of the individual interred and is considered against a wider historical and international funerary context.

The evidence for the foundation of the monastery of Derry by St Columba in the sixth century is reviewed and an alternative thesis to the traditional account outlined. The article also suggests how the legend may have developed.

The paper examines the history of research into the early bronze halberd, on a Europe-wide basis, from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present. Its aim is to provide a brief introduction to that research and to act as a guide to some of the main sources.

The decoration on the north side of the base of the twelfth-century St Patrick's Cross on the Rock of Cashel is interpreted as a labyrinth with Minotaur on the basis of comparisons, particularly with manuscripts such as the roughly contemporary Liber Floridus of Lambert of Saint-Omer. The author argues that because of possible evil connotations of the Minotaur, the carving may have contained a symbolic message directed at traditional Irish churchmen, whose practices the ecclesiastical reformers at the Synod of Cashel (1101) would have regarded as sinful.

Note on four beehive querns from three locations (two from Derrylough, one from Finnaragh and one from Kilcommock, all in County Longford) along with a discussion on dating evidence and the possible significance of their location in the same area.

Note on the rediscovery, at the Palmerstown Demesne between Kill and Johnstown, Co. Kildare, of an early-eighteenth-century milestone from the turnpike road between Dublin and Naas.