Every now and then in college when studying for an assignment, you stumble across a name on a paper whom previously you would never have heard of. After a while, you find that name popping up everywhere like the personified Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. Before you realise it, that name is influencing your work and you now actively search out their work. For me, it was was Ellen Prendergast.
I first heard her name during an assignment in 2nd year for Prof. Cooney’s course, Answers from the Grave. We had to do a group assignment and each group was allocated a different burial site. My group was given a site in Co. West Meath, called Ballybrennan. This site consisted of 4 Bronze Age cists discovered in a quarry over a period of 6 years starting in 1940. The first was found in 1940 and the next, 1945 and were both written up by Prendergast which can be found in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (Vol. 75, No. 2, June 1945, pp. 107-111) under the title of ‘Bronze Age Burials in Co. Westmeath’. The article we were given however came from the National Museum of Ireland’s recent publication “Break Ground, Finding Graves vol 1”. This details the second two graves discovered in 1946 which had been excavated by Prendergast. In order to get as much information as i could, I went to the NMI archives to review the old excavation reports. While there, i looked into other reports from the area I was living at the time, Ashbourne Co. Meath, as i was working on another assignment based in that area. With that, I discovered her name on reports of other burials near the site i was also investigating.
Her name started popping up in my studies throughout the year and I started to take notice of her competence and dedication as well as her professionalism. I was quite impressed. She came across as someone i should research as she was quite prolific for her time. Little did i realise her true significance.
She died in 1999 and the obituary written by Pat Wallace recognises her as ‘The first woman archaeologist in Ireland’. Her obituary can be found here (Archaeology Ireland, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Autumn, 1999), p. 23).
Ellen Prendergast was elected a member of the Archaeological Society committee on March 21st 1945 for the year 1945-46, although the minute books record it incorrectly as 1944-45.
It would also be in this year, on the 7th of December that she would present her first talk to the Society on “The antiquities of the Dublin Area”.
It will not be her death that I will dwell on but her contribution to the Society and I very much look forward to how it will play out over the next few years of her involvement.
seekingthesociety 
Nellie’s twin sister Catherine (Kitty) (my grandmother ) is still alive (aged 95). She has some great photos – many of Nellie as the only woman in groups of men. Thanks for the research. We have many memories of Nellie as a stand out character. Indeed we still have many of her books!
I didn’t see your name. Go raibh maith agat aris.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog. I have more to come which includes more about Ellen. Sadly I can only do it in my spare time (which I have little of at the moment). I hope to get more research done over Christmas. I have a great fascination with the history of Irish archaeology and would love to see some of those photos if that’s possible. Delighted to hear your grandmother is still alive. My name’s Cian btw.