Ellen Prendergast
Ellen M. (Nell) Prendergast (11 June 1918-10 May 1999), was Ireland's first female professional archaeologist.

Career
Prendergast was born near Paulstown, County Kilkenny as one of a pair of twin girls. She was educated in the Brigidine Convent school in Mountrath.  She took up a post as Technical Assistant at the National Museum of Ireland, and attended University College Dublin where she completed a BA, and in 1947 an MA, in Celtic Archaeology. 

Prendergast spent her professional life working in the National Museum of Ireland, specialising in areas including burials of the later Neolithic period, prehistoric pottery and Early Bronze Age cist burials. She remained deeply interested in the archaeology of County Kilkenny and was a regular contributor for the Old Kilkenny Review, and she was a member of the Irish Archaeological Society committee from 1945. 

In addition to her involvement in history, Prendergast was known as a feminist and trade unionist, and a supporter of the Irish language. 

When she retired in 1983 Prendergast returned to live in Kilkenny.

Papers

 The Stoneyford Roman Finds.Archaeology Ireland, vol. 3, no. 4, 1989, pp. 159–159 
 Bronze Age Burials in Co. Westmeath. The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland vol. 75, no. 2, 1945, pp. 107–111
 A fertility figure from Tullaroan, 1992
 A souterrain at Scurlockstown, 1971
 Amber Necklace from Co Galway, 1960
 Bronze Age Burials, Co Wexford, 1953
 Bronze Age burials in Co Westmeath, 1945
 Burial at Rossmakay, Co Louth, 1957
 Burials at Stephenstown, 1970
 Castlegarden sweat-house, Co Kilkenny, 1991
 Cist burial at Bolinready, Co Wexford, 1968
 Excavation of a mound at Blessington, Co Wicklow, 1946
 Group of bronzes from Charleville Forest, Co Offaly, 1961
 Images of the Holy Trinity -- two new examples, 1993
 National Museum of Ireland: archaeological acquisitions in the year 1965, 1968
 Prehistoric Burial at Rath, Co Wicklow, 1959
 Report on investigation of souterrain at Dowdallshill, Dundalk, 1968
 Ring-fort with Souterrain at Gorteen, Co Westmeath, 1959
 The history of the Abbotsbury duck decoy 1655-1982, 1985
 The history of the Morden duck decoy 1724, 1985
 Two Souterrains in Co Meath, 1962
 Two unrecorded graveslabs in County Dublin, 1977
 Urn Burial at Maganey Lower, Co Kildare, 1962
 Colonel Dan Bryan – Obituary, 1985

References and sources