Mr. Paul Gosling, BA, MIAI

Career Background

Paul Gosling is a professional archaeologist, lecturer and author who hails from Dundalk, in Co. Louth. He lectures in the Department of Humanities on the Galway Campus of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) and is co-ordinator of the Diploma in Humanities in Heritage Studies course. He is also a member of The Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland.

Paul studied archaeology in University College Dublin and The Queens University, Belfast before moving to Galway in 1982. Prior to his appointment as a lecturer in GMIT in 1997, Paul directed the OPW/UCG Preliminary Archaeological Survey of County Galway from 1984 to 1993. The fruits of this work have appeared in the form of a Sites & Monuments Record, County Galway (1987) and an Archaeological Inventory of County Galway. Volume I of the latter, covering West Galway and the Aran Islands, appeared in 1993 while Volume II covering north Galway was published in 1999. A final volume (Volume III), covering south Galway, is forthcoming.

Research Interests Paul has previously researched the texts, signage and illustrations for the Heritage Centre at Carlingford. Co. Louth in 1991-93. However, his main research interests have centred around archaeological survey, both urban and rural, and he has published a number of research papers and two books on the towns of Dundalk, Carlingford and Tuam. Since 1991, he has also been involved in the archaeological section of the Royal Irish Academy´s multi-disciplinary New Survey of Clare Island, Co. Mayo. More recently, he has developed an interest in the history of archaeology in Ireland which has led to the re-publication of Thomas Wright&s Louthiana of 1748 (Dundalgan Press, 2000) and an assessment of the archaeological career of Dr Adolf Mahr (with Annika Stephan: Yearbook of the Centre for Irish-German Studies, University of Limerick, forthcoming 2003).

His interest in the Burren dates from the mid-1980s when he began lecturing to groups at Burren School of Painting in Lisdoonvarna. He was a major contributor to the popular The Book of the Burren (1991) and since 1998 has co-organised with George Cunningham, the Burren Spring Conference which is held annually in Ballyvaughan.