Skull discovered on Cape Clear beach added to human remains database

Database, launched by the Department of Justice a year ago, contains 46 remains which have been found in locations across the country since 1968
Skull discovered on Cape Clear beach added to human remains database

The skull fragment found on Trá Ciaran on Cape Clear’s North Harbour in December 2021 was analysed and was confirmed last October to be human, according to the database. File picture: Denis Minihane

The discovery of a partial skull on a beach on Cape Clear island off Cork is included in an updated version of Ireland’s human remains database.

The database, launched by the Department of Justice a year ago, contains 46 remains which have been found in locations across the country since 1968. 

The database also includes 16 historical remains believed to be more than 100 years old — including a partial skull which is currently in the State Pathologists office after it was brought to the attention of the Wexford coroner last August. 

The database outlines: “Skull had been on display on a bookshelf in a house.”

It was discovered in Duncormick in Wexford and is believed to belong to a man. 

An examination of the remains was carried out by a forensic anthropologist last August, but DNA profiling has not yet been done.

The skull fragment found on Trá Ciaran on Cape Clear’s North Harbour in December 2021 was analysed and was confirmed last October to be human, according to the database. 

DNA profiling has been carried out on the remains, which have not yet been interred.

A human jaw bone found off Mizen Head has also not been interred as efforts continue to identify it. 

The bone is believed to be that of a male and DNA profiling has been conducted. 

A dental examination has also been carried out.

Also new to the database are remains found on the seafront near Clontarf baths in Dublin in April 1987. 

The remains are those of a white male between 5ft 9in and 6ft in height, aged between 20 and 30 years old, with tattoos on his right wrist reading DA and MA, while a tattoo on his left wrist read EIRE. 

He was wearing blue jeans, a black leather jacket, a blue shirt, and white ankle runners with a blue stripe. 

“There was a water damaged note with the date Wednesday 18th March in his pocket,” outlines the database. 

His remains have been buried in Glasnevin cemetery.

Efforts to identify the remains of a man found on the sea shore at Knockbrack, Tullaghan, Co Leitrim, have been made in the past year. 

The remains were discovered in May 1986 and have recently been exhumed for DNA profiling, before being reinterred in a local cemetery.

Additional information has been added to some existing cases on the database — including the remains of a woman believed to be Vietnamese, whose remains were found in the sea near Doolin in west Clare on October 4, 2018. 

The updated entry relating to the woman notes she was wearing a ring on her left ring finger, which bore the name Lara on the inside. 

The ring has been described “as a band of metal circles”. 

The remains are buried in Drumcliffe cemetery in Clare.

The database has been compiled with information submitted by coroners from across the country.

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