Joseph Raftery

Joseph Raftery was an Irish archaeologist and director of the National Museum of Ireland. He entered University College Dublin on a scholarship, graduating with a degree in Celtic Studies in 1933. He went on to complete a master's degree in archaeology in 1934 with a thesis on "Archaeological Monuments in Counties Laois and Tipperary". He travelled to Europe to visit museum collections on an archaeology bursary and continued his studies at the University of Marburg, receiving his doctorate in 1939.

His 1951 Prehistoric Ireland was his first major publication, and an attempt to provide a comprehensive body of illustrations of Irish archaeology. Throughout his career, and into retirement, Raftery published widely on subjects such as the long stone-cist burials of the Irish Iron Age, Viking era silver, and a number of gold hoards. Notably, Raftery disagreed with the 1979 decision by the Irish High Court to rule the Wood Quay site in Dublin a national monument.