Of course, we are still inclined to think of these first farmers as a combination of American pioneer farmers living in log cabins and Amerindian tribes such as the Iroquois or Hurons. This may even be true for some of the initial pioneering settlements but this part of Ireland's prehistory lasted nearly two thousand years and in that period some remarkable changes took place, changes which probably do more than any others to create the Ireland which enters history several thousand years later.

Towards the end of the Neolithic, we can see evidence of just how large a population was living in Ireland. One of the most spectacular types of tomb to be found in Ireland is the passage tomb. These roughly circular monuments vary in size from 10 to 100m across and in this case the burial chamber deep inside the mound or cairn is entered through a passage. For example, some time before 3,000 B.C., large mounds began to be built in the Boyne Valley. These were to form the core of the Bend of the Boyne cemetery where within sight of each other three large mounds, each around 100m across, were erected. In the case of Knowth, there was a mound 100m across, containing two tombs, each with its own passage over 30m long. In one, the cross-shaped complex of burial chambers has a ceiling well over 5m above the floor. Surrounding this large mound were at least eighteen other tombs. Other subsidiary tombs have also been found adjacent to the other major tombs.

There is of course, in the Boyne Valley and adjacent areas an extra element - art. Here in the Stone Age, geometric motifs - spirals, lozenges, zig-zags, sun bursts - were cut into the rock. Working with stone on stone is a long, painfully slow process. Yet some slabs, such as the entrance stone at Newgrange which is over 3m long, are masterpieces of composition in their own right as well as being the accumulation of hundreds of hours of work. One enigma is that, in some cases, these slabs were used in such a way that all or part of the art was obscured from human view. Obviously these tombs were associated with cults which we cannot even begin to understand. They are unfortunately uninterpretable and part of a complex ritual which may include observations of astronomical events. At Knowth there are paved areas perhaps associated with fertility cults while at Newgrange the mid-winter sun at dawn penetrates the very back of the chamber by shining through a little box perched on top of the entrance. The same general type of solar phenomenon can be seen in other tombs.

Place these tombs on little ridges on the floor of the Boyne Valley and surround them, not with trees, but with an open green countryside and we begin to realise just how much these farmers have changed the landscape. Yet this may be nothing in comparison to the evidence now emerging from under the bogs in north Co. Mayo. Here Seamus Caulfield has uncovered large field systems which underlie peat bogs which began to develop by the end of the Stone Age. At Behy, Caulfield has found an organised series of field systems which runs for several kilometres in all directions. These are organised as a series of parallel strips running away from the coastal cliffs. Each strip is made up of fields of up to three hectares in size, and within each strip is a little enclosure which may have contained a dwelling. While we can never be certain why these field systems were created - perhaps through family ownership, or simply communal land management - they show that a certain pressure must have been developing on the use of land.

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From the Appletree Press title: The People of Ireland (currently out of print).
Also see A Little History of Ireland.