President meets a medieval skeleton

She had terrible teeth, dodgy bones and died a social outcast in 12th-century Dublin - she is unlikely to have had visitors of…

She had terrible teeth, dodgy bones and died a social outcast in 12th-century Dublin - she is unlikely to have had visitors of any sort even when she was alive.

Yesterday, however, the President, Mrs McAleese, unveiled the remains of the woman (aged somewhere between 40 and 60) now referred to simply as Skeleton X. The skeleton is on loan from the National Museum to the medieval museum, Dvblinia, situated at Christ Church.

The skeleton is one of many uncovered on the south bank of the Liffey below Christ Church in the 1970s. Skeleton X was found in unconsecrated ground beside the remains of two small children. According to Dr Pat Wallace of the National Museum, the position of the bodies suggests they were victims of an epidemic or criminals hanged from the city wall.

As the President crouched down beside the otherwise well-preserved skeleton, she winced at the description of the woman's dental health. There was evidence of several chronic dental abscesses, probably a result of the woman using her teeth as some kind of work tool. Only five of her teeth were recovered.

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In a speech heard by the museum's new director, Ms Suzanne Costello, the Medieval Trust's acting chairwoman, Ms Eileen O'Mara Walsh, and Dr Wallace, she said it was unfortunate that unlike her, Skeleton X had not been married to a dentist: "They can usually solve these problems for you."

Exhibits like this one, the President said, "break down the barriers of time, the fear of crossing into the academic territory of history. Our history is simply that - his story and her story", she said.

The medieval skeleton will be on display daily in Dvblinia from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.