Eóin Parkinson (27) is an archaeologist from Co. Fermanagh who uses funerary monuments as a means of understanding both life and death in past societies.

With support from the University of Cambridge’s Public Engagement Starter Fund, Eóin is hoping to work with members of rural communities across Fermanagh, enabling them to engage with their shared local heritage.

Having initially studied a bachelor’s degree in archaeology at Queen’s University Belfast, Eóin extended his education in the field by completing a Masters degree at the University of Sheffield before undertaking a PhD at the University of Cambridge. He credits his history teacher from his time at Portora Royal School for sending him on “the right track.”

“I always liked history in school but then I got very interested in guitar and that began to take me away from it,” shared Eóin, “One particular teacher in Portora called Peter McCallum, he got me back into history and then it was the only thing I really wanted to do.”

He continued: “When it came to university it was either history or archaeology and I took a gamble with archaeology and it spiralled out of control with a Masters and a PhD.”

Through a combination of field trips, his own field work and working on other people’s projects, Eóin has travelled all over Europe as an archaeologist. He has also had the opportunity to work on sites in America and Iraq but explained that most of his work over the past couple of years has been based in the Central Mediterranean. “If you total it up, I’ve spent two years worth of time in Malta, having lived there for nine months and frequently returning for field work, and I spent about six months in Italy and I’m going to be moving to Rome for six months next year as a part of a yearlong post-doctoral research fellowship at Cambridge University. So it’s taken me all over the place,” he commented.

Currently based between Fermanagh and Belfast, Eóin explained that the inspiration behind his Starter Fund project stemmed from his study of local headstones for his undergraduate dissertation.

“I was always interested in what we could learn from what people leave behind when they die and what that can tell us, not just about death, but also about life,” he said.

With the project, Eóin wants to get local people engaged with their heritage and archaeology.

“Many of these people, their families have been living here for a long time so in some cases their ancestors might be buried at these sites,” he explained. “So it’s giving them a chance to re-engage with their family history but then to also learn how to do archaeology, to either foster an interest that they might already have or spark an interest that was hiding beneath the surface.”

Working with local people and history groups, Eóin hopes to derive “folk knowledge” which he described as “information that only local people know because they come from that area or their family has come from that area.” He added: “So I think there is a real opportunity for knowledge sharing between archaeologists and local communities.”

By analysing inscriptions, decoration and typology of memorials and headstones, Eóin will explore the differences and similarities between Native Irish groups and English/Scottish settlers during the Plantation of Ulster.

He said: “What you can really see is that these two groups, they’re living side by side, they are both erecting headstones but they are doing so in very different ways through use of particular symbols or phrases.”

He continued: “So there are these two parallel identities running side by side and that’s really interesting because I think that contextualises some of the cultural divides that we might have today and I think it’s really important to have that historical context so that people can have a very informed view of the past.”

“I think a lot of the problems that we have in this country is that people don’t understand the past. I think if we maybe did, we might get along a bit better,” Eóin added. For more information on the project contact Eóin via fermanagh.headstone.research@gmail.com