Biography

I left Ireland to work in England in 1989 and spent 11 years working in Higher Education funding before returning to University in 2001. I received a First Class honours for my BA in Archaeology from the University of Bristol in 2004 and was awarded full funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to complete an MA in Archaeology at the University of Reading. After successfully completing my Masters I returned to the University of Bristol and received a further award from the AHRC for Doctoral research which I completed in 2010. I have lectured widely across all levels of students at the University of Bristol and for local historical and archaeological societies. Covering a diverse range of topics from the Iron Age in western Europe to the archaeology of Rome and the western provinces, I initially taught at the University of Bristol as a Graduate Lecturer and latterly as an Honorary Lecturer and was made a Visiting Research Fellow after I took up my appointment with the Discovery Programme in September 2011. I have worked closely with colleagues in Ireland throughout my research and was invited to become a consortium member for the INSTAR Mapping Death project in 2009.

Publications

Books:

Becoming Irish: (in preparation) This is an adaptation of my PHD thesis aimed at presenting its findings in an engaging way, charting the extent of the influence Rome had on Ireland and the way this history has been modified and in part neglected during the twentieth century, as Ireland developed a new cultural identity.)

Articles:

(Forthcoming) Cahill Wilson, J., Strontium and Oxygen Isotope Analysis from High Island, Co. Galway, in Scally, G. High Island - Ard Oilean, Connemara, Co. Galway: Excavation of an Early Medieval Monastery on an Atlantic Irish Island. (Department of Environment Monograph Series: Dublin)

(In Press) Cahill Wilson J, Usborne H, Taylor C, Ditchfield P and Pike A W G, 'Strontium and Oxygen Isotope Analysis on Iron Age and Early Historic burials around the Great Mound at Knowth, Co. Meath', Appendix 5 in, Excavations at Knowth 5: The Archaeology of Knowth in the First and Second Millennia AD, George Eogan (Editor), with contributions by Madeline O'Brien, Cathy Johnson and others, (Royal Irish Academy: Dublin)

(In Press) Sheridan, J.A., Jay, M., Montgomery, J., Pellegrini, M. & Cahill Wilson, J. Tara Boy: local hero or international Man of Mystery? In M. O'Sullivan (Editor) Tara – From the Past to the Future (Wordwell: Dublin)

Conference & Seminar Papers:

2008 Roman Diaspora Workshop, University of Reading: Caveats and constraints: the interpretation of isotope results from older excavations

2009 INSTAR Mapping Death Conference. Strontium and oxygen analysis on Irish burials: towards a collaborative database

2010 INSTAR Mapping Death Conference. Identities and materialities in Late Iron Age and Early Historic Ireland

2011 Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland (IAI) Conference: Scientific collaboration for the Mapping Death Project: strontium and oxygen isotope analysis on burials from Ireland

General Audience

Public Lectures: 2008 The Samhain Lecture, "Talking Teeth" National Museum of Ireland

Public Lectures: 2011 Clevedon Historical and Archaeological Society: Public Lecture Series: A 21st century approach to the archaeology of Roman Britain (six lectures)

General Interest Article (2011) Cahill Wilson J., Unlocking history: the role of archaeology in heritage management, Lansdown Links Magazine, Issue No. 4 Spring, (Bristol: The Clifton Agency)