ARCHAEOLOGISTS are divided over the claim that the Romans may have invaded Ireland after all establishing a castrum, or fortified military camp, at Drumanagh, on the north Co Dublin coast.
The claim, carried prominently in yesterday's Sunday Times, is shrouded in mystery because the Roman artefacts discovered on the site were gathered illegally in contravention of the National Monuments Acts.
As a result of a continuing legal dispute over the ownership of these objects - now apparently in storage at the National Museum - the matter is subjudice.
According to conventional wisdom, Ireland and Scotland both escaped occupation by the Romans. But if Drumanagh was, indeed, the site of a Roman fort, it would mean that early Irish history would have to be substantially rewritten.
Drumanagh, near Rush, Co Dublin, has long been known as the most important Iron Age site on the east coast. It is beside the spot where the new gas interconnector linking Ireland with Scotland was brought ashore.
The newspaper report claimed, on the basis of imperial coins found on the site, that the Romans had established a fort there in the 1st century AD, from which they may have launched military operations against the Celts. It quoted Dr Barry Cunliffe, professor of European archaeology at Oxford University, as describing the find as "staggering". He even suggested that Drumanagh could be one of the most important Roman sites in Europe.
It also quoted Mr Richard Warner, keeper of antiquities at the Ulster Museum as saying that the excavation of Drumanagh would be the most significant ever and could "totally change our interpretation of the Iron Age in Ireland".
Dr Peter Harbison, author of the definitive Guide to the National Monuments of Ireland, has a view of Drumanagh from his home. "What they're saying is almost certainly correct, though I haven't seen the material myself', he said.
He said that nearby Lambay Island was also settled either by people who had come over from Roman Britain or by Celts fleeing from there. A cemetery containing Roman remains was found by archaeologists on Lambay in the 1920s.
The Drumanagh site, which contains a Martello tower, is on a promontory and is enclosed by an earthen bank. As a national monument, it is in the guardianship of the Office of Public Works, though it remains in private ownership.
But Dr Michael Herity, emeritus professor of archaeology at UCD was dubious about the latest "discovery". He insisted that Drumanagh was a Celtic site and the artefacts discovered there were most likely due to the Celts trading with Roman Britain. "The story has been fantasised and blown up into something it's not", he declared.
