Four share €250k for discovery of golden hoard

By Stephen Maguire

A group of people who found four priceless gold rings in a Co Donegal field have shared a €250,000 finder’s fee.

The rings, which were discovered in Convoy in June, date back thousands of years to the Bronze Age.

The golden hoard, which weighs 4kg, has gone on display at the National Museum.

Among those at the unveiling was farmer Norman Witherow, who unearthed the rings while doing some digger work with a number of other people.

The group were working on clearing a drain when they came across the hoard.

Mr Witherow initially didn’t know what to do with the rings.

“I couldn’t figure out what they were. They were covered in clay and we had no idea if they were gold or even copper,” he said.

We had no idea of the value and we definitely didn’t appreciate their worth when we first discovered them.

Museum chiefs in Dublin were alerted and they immediately realised the significance of the find. This led to a team of experts being dispatched to the site within hours.

The four bracelets have become known as the Tullydonnell Hoard after the townland in which they were found.

A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht confirmed a fee had been paid for the discovery and handing over of the Donegal bracelets.

“It is normal practice to pay rewards to finders of archaeological objects discovered in legitimate circumstances and reported to the National Museum of Ireland,” he said.

The practice of payment of a finder’s fee is designed to encourage people not to sell any possible artefacts on the black market or to melt precious metals down. Judith McCarthy, curator of the Donegal County Museum, says it is a major find.

“We were delighted to be able to assist both the finders and the National Museum of Ireland with this discovery,” she said.

“Donegal has a very rich and varied history stretching back thousands of years and the Tullydonnell Hoard forms an important part of this multi-faceted story.”