At a seminar on 3 April in the Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute in UCD, the Discovery Programme CEO Brian Lacey drew attention to the work of an important but largely forgotten Irish archaeologist. Boyle Somerville was a brother of the well-known Irish writer Edith Somerville - of ‘Somerville and Ross’ fame. Boyle (born 1863) trained in the Royal Navy as a hydrographer and over a long career made numerous contributions to various kinds of scientific research including the prehistoric archaeology of Britain and Ireland. He is recognised internationally as one of the pioneers of what is now called archaeoastronomy. Boyle began his serious archaeological work in 1908-09 when, based with the navy in Lough Swilly, Co. Donegal, he surveyed a number of ancient monuments, seeking to determine their orientations on astronomical ‘events’. His first reports were published in 1909. Although his archaeological work was interrupted by the First World War - along with other of his publications - most of his reports eventually appeared in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Archaeologia and Antiquity. After retirement in 1924, Boyle devoted himself to the study of various aspects of Irish heritage but was tragically assassinated by the IRA in 1936. Although he was a brilliant - if never actually a professional - Irish archaeologist, he is all but forgotten nowadays. Brian Lacey is currently writing a number of articles about his Irish archaeological work.