Centuries old teenage skeleton found in Co. Clare

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/skeleton-found-in-clare-cave-is-centuriesold-stunted-teenage-boy-35283105.html

I was reading the above article and it jolted me to read the archaeologists opinions on what physical stats the 14 -16 year old teenager would have been at the time of death:

"The adolescent measured 4ft 1in in height - the equivalent of an average eight-year-old child by modern standards, or an 11- to 12-year-old in post-medieval times"

Really serves to remind us just how brutal conditions could be for people in Ireland in the not too distant past - this individual was guessed to have died during Cromwells hey-day. It must have been a completely alien world to live in such poverty that you could end up at that age, crawling into a cave in a mountain to die, body extremely stunted from malnourishment.

TeaBagMania

The early years we're not easy for our Celtic brothers and sisters