There’s no indication who either of these men pictured at Gaulstown Dolmen many moons ago might have been.

Looking at middle-aged males in the locality at the turn of the century (which is thought to be the era in question), Maurice Power, Gaulstown, was a farmer and district councillor back then. He was 48 at the time of the 1901 Census.

Also with the same address that year were his brother Edmund (aged 44), another farmer Maurice Gahan (49), and carpenter Thomas Scully (70, which probably rules him out).

Newspaper records show there was also “a labouring man”, James Torpey, working at Gaulstown in the 1890s. This, I’m speculating, could be the man in the top image.

Gaulstown Dolmen was declared a National Monument by Government Order in 1939, entrusted for preservation to the Commissioners for Public Works. Some concrete support was added inside the chamber at one stage, but this doesn’t take from the external impact of the site.

The then-landowner, David Gahan, left a gap in the entrance at the end of the laneway so that people could visit the site and this pedestrian access has been maintained to this day.

Photographs from the (RIP) Andy Taylor Collection published in my then newspaper, Tramore Hinterland in 2012.