British skulduggery proved a healthy export

THE skulls of tens of thousands of Irish butchered in 16th and 17th-century battles were exported to Britain where they were ground up and consumed by the English aristocracy, including monarchs, in the belief they could cure illnesses and heal wounds.

In a new book, an eminent English academic also claims that, at one stage, skulls were among the biggest exports from this country to England.

Dr Richard Sugg, a lecturer at Durham University, said so many skulls were imported into Britain they had plenty to sell onto the Germans, who were also into so-called corpse medicine.