Tests carried out on a bone discovered in a cave outside Ennis has re-written the history of Ireland.
The butchered brown bear bone was one of thousands of bones originally discovered in Alice and Gwendoline Cave, in the early nineteen-hundreds and deposited at the national museam.
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But recent carbon dating tests have revealed that markings on it inflicted by a knife wielding humans date back 12,500 years, showing people were in Ireland 2,500 years earlier than previously believed.
Archaeologist Dr Marion Dowd, who made the discovery, says further examination of the cave and its surroundings could reveal much more about the colonisation of Ireland.
