Connected, or not? The Irish Independent reports a find on the River Boyne and speculation linking it to the building of Newgrange;

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/anglers-catch-ancient-canoe-in-the-boyne-2234534.html

Briefly, an oak dugout canoe; 3m long and 61cm wide, was noticed by two anglers in the river near Newgrange. After immediately resubmerging it – thank you and well done, Ivan Murphy and Kevin Tuite – they called the National Museum and experts came to remove the boat from the water. It has now been taken to a preservation centre in Roscommon.

There will be no reliable date for the craft until tests are carried out, although the close proximity of the find to Newgrange (and the fact that it has a large, handy hook at one end) seems to have prompted some initial thoughts; “It is believed canoes were used to transport stone to the site some 5,000 years ago.” We’ll wait and see, I guess. A source close to Heritage Action has said of dugout canoes that; “it seems that very few of the many Irish examples are pre-historic.”

This is the second Irish canoe-find, recently – late salvage, perhaps, from the unprecedented rainfall and flooding of a few months ago.