Athenry News & Views Summer 2026

Summer 2026

Growing up, I heard my father’s version of the discovery—a story shaped by oral tradition, practical detail, and local colour. When I later compared this with formal museum records, I was struck by some differences. Names were misspelled, details uncertain, and even the reported depth of the find—an astonishing 24 feet—raises questions. Somewhere between folklore and formal record lies the truth, and perhaps that is where history often resides. More than a century later, the story took another intriguing turn. In September 1991, my grand uncle Jimmy Cannon was visited by the renowned archaeologist, Professor Etienne Rynne, who made Athenry his home in the late 1960s. Jimmy was 86 at the time and the last surviving member of the Cannon household at Cappanasruhaun. perspective, Etienne realised that new information was emerging. Jimmy spoke of additional objects found on that day in 1891—items that had remained in the house for years before quietly disappearing. Intrigued, Etienne asked him to sit at the kitchen table and draw what he remembered. That hand-drawn sketch, now preserved in museum archives, hints at missing pieces that could yet reshape our understanding of the hoard, if they are ever rediscovered. In many ways, the story is still unfolding. For me, the Attymon Hoard is not just an archaeological discovery. It is a reminder of how global history and local lives intersect—how a moment of chance, a conversation in a market square, or a fragment of family memory can shape what we come to know about our past. And it all began in an East Galway bog, just a few miles from where many of us live today. As he recounted the story of the discovery from his own

The townland of Cappanasruhaun, the field of streams, can be seen to the right of this map

Jimmy Cannon’s 1991 drawing of the lost artefacts, submitted in a letter from Professor Etienne Rynne to the National Museum

Jimmy Cannon

ETIENNE RYNNE from Athenry was emeritus professor of archaeology at NUI Galway. He was a renowned scholar and while his speciality was early Irish art, he was drawn to a range of subjects. In the 1960s he visited Jimmy Cannon who recounted the story of the discovery of the Attymon Hoard and new information about other items.

Tommy Joe Cannon

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