Archaeologists believe they may have discovered the first human remains from one of the island's most significant battle sites at Aughrim, Co Galway.
The remains are among 32 skeletons excavated at a school near the east Galway village. Another 12 skeletons are believed to be in the immediate area of the location at the Glebe National School.
The discovery was made during a project to add one room to the two-teacher Church of Ireland school.
The school is based in the grounds of a church rectory and was also the location for a medieval burial site.
Michael Tierney, an archaeologist commissioned by the school's board of management and the Department of Education and Science, said that the skeletons were lying east-west, according to Christian tradition, which would suggest that they were formal burials.
However, one of the skeletons was of a decapitated body and its severed head, and a second was "cleaved" or cut in two.
"We have yet to confirm this, but we believe these may have been battle victims" - and if so, the first recorded from the battle in 1691 between the forces of King James II and King William III which claimed 6,000 lives, he said.
