Men buried under Cork's Nancy Spain's pub 'met a violent and gruesome end' 

Remarkable new details shed fascinating new light on Cork's turbulent, bloody and often gruesome past, and prompt new questions about the pattern of human settlement in the 11th century

Overhead view of the skeletons found in the mass burial pit. Picture: John Cronin & Associates)

The men whose centuries-old remains were found buried under a landmark Cork city pub with their hands tied behind their backs “met a violent and gruesome end”, archaeologists have confirmed.

And it has also emerged that a second major archaeological discovery, a 1,000-year-old defensive ditch, found nearby on the site of the former Nancy Spain's pub on Barrack Street suggests that the mediaeval city was bigger than previously thought.