About

The page has been going over 13 years now and just a bit about the page and myself for those that are new here and why I do what I do!

My name is Derek Ryan (Bawn), I’ve had an interest in archaeology, history and folklore for over 20 years now. I started out with a major interest in megalithic sites but when I moved back home to North Tipperary I became interested in everything that was around me.

In 2014 I found Tipperary’s first recorded rock art and it was only then that I realised that there were monuments waiting to be rediscovered around me. Since then I have found or helped report over 30 previously unrecorded archaeological sites in Tipperary and surrounding areas, all without putting a shovel in the ground.

I've added a few more sites to the records since the last edit over a year ago.

This has included rock-art, a possible portal tomb, medieval tomb fragments, numerous bullaun stones, a possible burial mound, an ecclesiastical enclosure, a sweat-house, a tower-house / castle, standing stones, mass-rocks, a children’s burial ground, holy wells & a holed stone. Many of them I haven’t featured on my page. I’ve even been involved with trying to find the remains of a submerged castle in Lough Derg with Lough Derg Sub Aqua Club!

In 2017 I completed a part-time Diploma in Archaeology from NUIG (Now Galway University). The same year I helped set-up the Arra Historical & Archaeological Society in the area where I grew up. This coincided nicely with the setting up by the Heritage Council of the Adopt a Monument Scheme. The Society were lucky enough to be picked as a group to carry out a project on the Graves of the Leinstermen.

These are an enigmatic group of stones overlooking Lough Derg in Co. Tipperary. I helped with this project as the Society’s Project Manager and we were lucky enough to receive funding from the Heritage Council and Tipperary County Council to carry out a Topographical & Geophysical Surveys of the stones (by Earthsound Geophysics). We also updated the information signage on site and I helped with the wording and photos etc and managing that project.

In the main I do this out of a huge interest in archaeology and on a voluntary basis. However, in 2021 I was delighted to be asked to do a Survey of Holy Wells in Tipperary for Tipperary County Council. This I completed in 2022, visiting all of the over 120 holy wells in the County. In the winter of 2022 / 2023 I carried out a Survey of Thatch / Tin buildings in North Tipp for the NIAH.

In 2021 I came across an interesting course online – GIS and Digital Mapping at GMIT and decided to make the best I could out of Covid and do it part-time. I’ve always been a map nerd so it was a really interesting course to do. It was all done via Zoom and Microsoft teams. I actually never had to set foot in the campus! I qualified from that in December 2021. I’ve always had an interest in Genealogy as well and when I completed a Masters in Planning and Development, my final year thesis was titled “The Creative Economy and the Irish Diaspora” and it looked at the spread of the Irish Diaspora around the world.

I'm not a natural speaker but I’ve carried out a number of talks over the years. In 2016 for the Portroe Gathering I did a walk and talk about the Rock Art that I had discovered near the village. I did a talk for Arra Historical & Archaeological Society in 2018 on the “Megaliths in Tipperary with a focus on the Arra area”. I also have done talks on “The History of the Ryan Clan in Tipperary & Limerick” for Newport Historical Society, Ormond Historical Society, Borrisleigh Historical Society & Cappamore Historical Society.

The Ryan Clan is an area I have a big interest in and it has branched out into an interest in the Gaelic Medieval period in Tipperary in general. I helped organise a mini Ryan Gathering in 2017 with the launch of Brian Kennedy’s book The Ryans of Tipperary & Limerick in Newport, Co. Tipperary. During Covid in 2021 I helped with an online Ryan Gathering on a voluntary basis for Limerick County Council. In the case of the Ryans there are a number of unanswered questions, are the Ryans of Carlow and Tipperary one and the same? If so why and when did some of them move to Tipperary? I run a Facebook page called https://www.facebook.com/ryanclanoftipperaryandlimerick and I’ve been involved for a number of years with trying to get a committee formed to try and answer some of these questions and to look at Ryan history in general.

So I have a wealth of experience both voluntary and paid in the heritage sector in Tipperary. If I can be of help to any local organisation/ historical society in relation to any heritage projects they are thinking of, let me know and I will try and point them in the right direction.

I also help run the Facebook page for the https://www.facebook.com/arrahistoricalandarchaeologicalsociety/

I have written a number of articles over the years and they are on my academia.edu profile here.

https://independentresearcher.academia.edu/DerekRyan

Some of the areas of interest I have include megalithic sites, rock art, folk art, medieval graveslabs, the medieval Gaelic period around Tipperary, townland and placename meanings, the Ryan Clan, the Arra area of North Tipperary, holy wells, archaeoastronomy, graveyard surveys & stone carvings. (I’m sure I have missed out on a few of these as well).

For some of my megalithic photos see here

https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/user/6120

My personal page - https://www.facebook.com/derek.ryan.39108/

My email address is derekryanbawn@gmail.com