19.06.2025
Images from the Honorary Conferring
The National University of Ireland was delighted to award a Doctor of Literature to Professor William O’Brien, emeritus Professor of Archaeology in University College Cork and member of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA).
The National University of Ireland’s Higher Doctorates on Published Work are the highest qualifications awarded by the University. They are awarded to scholars who have published a substantial body of ground-breaking and influential work in a field of specialisation, and who have achieved outstanding distinction internationally in that field. Professor O'Brien has done so in the field of archaeology.
A graduate of UCC, Professor O'Brien undertook doctoral research in 1987 on the subject of prehistoric copper mining. Prior to his appointment to the Cork chair in 2006, he lectured for 16 years at the University of Galway. Research and teaching interests include the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age in Ireland, early mining and metallurgy in Atlantic Europe, upland archaeology and all aspects of monumentality in the later prehistoric period. He has a particular interest in the prehistory of south-west Ireland, where he has conducted some 40 excavation projects.
He has published widely in Ireland and abroad, including books on the Bronze Age copper mines on Mount Gabriel, wedge tomb landscapes in south-west Ireland, and general works on Bronze Age copper mining in Europe. Recent books includes studies of hillforts, warfare and society in Late Bronze Age Ireland, the early medieval royal site of Garranes, Co. Cork, the Late Bronze Age copper mine at Derrycarhoon, Co. Cork, and the Baltinglass hillfort landscape in Wicklow.
Huge congratulations to Professor O'Brien on this immense achievement, from all at NUI.
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