Ireland is not Atlantis, insists museum

The National Museum of Ireland today dismissed a Swedish academic’s controversial theory that Ireland is the long-lost kingdom of Atlantis.

The 127-year-old State institution said there was “no archaeological evidence” to support the claims of Dr Ulf Erlingsson which are contained in a new book.

The geologist, 44, has linked Newgrange passage tomb and the Hill of Tara with ancient remnants of the mythical Atlantis- first described by Greek thinker Plato.

But National Museum director Dr Patrick Wallace said today that there was no archaeological basis to associate Ireland with the utopian land.

Dr Wallace explained: “We can say that we know of no archaeological evidence which would support Mr Erlingsson’s theory.”

However Dr Wallace said his museum staff “were not in a position to assess” the geological basis of the Swede’s claims.

The existence of Atlantis has puzzled scientists for generations with some claiming it was in the mid Atlantic or in the Aegean Sea.

The myth also sparked a TV series, The Man from Atlantis starring Patrick Duffy, in the late 1970s and a 2001 Disney movie.

Dr Erlingsson claims in his book, Atlantis From a Geographer’s Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land, that Plato’s description of Atlantis matches Ireland perfectly.