A new monument has been erected to commemorate the people who lived and died at Ranelagh, a previously unknown medieval ringfort settlement uncovered during a road project eight years ago.
RTÉ news reports that over 650 sets of remains were removed from the site, many of them teenagers and babies.
Artist Libby Mulqueeny created this impression of the Ranelagh settlement.
The settlement at Ranelagh spanned a thousand years, and archaeologists say the monument is particularly significant because of the number of remains and the fact that the site was not recorded.
Marie Gilhooley, a member of Roscommon town team, told RTÉ news: "There were 655 sets of remains found there and there wasn't even a monument to commemorate them. We just felt that it should be commemorated in some way."
Local stonemason Mark Feeley spent a year creating a wonderful memorial depicting aspects of life for the people of Ranelagh.
An archaeologist working on the Ranelagh excavations.
Starting in October 2015 a team of archeologists excavated the site over 54 weeks. They found artefacts, animal bones and 655 human skeletons. Over 550 of these were complete skeletons, plus about 100 disarticulated sets of remains. Over 60% of the remains belonged to young people.
