Welcome to the second edition of our newsletter for the Irish Section of the Palaeopathology Association. Since our group is still in its infancy we have decided to produce a second newsletter within six months in order to raise our profile within the parent body and also within the greater archaeological and palaeopathological communities. In future the newsletter will be produced annually and it is anticipated that No. 3 will be released during January 2000.

A central component of this issue is a preliminary round up of details of research relating to all aspects of osteoarchaeology, palaeopathology and funerary archaeology which has been undertaken within our Irish universities over the past 55 years. Subsequently, a list of postgraduate theses and abstracts from theses submitted during 1998 has been provided. We also continue our bibliography of articles and texts which are of relevance to those engaged in osteoarchaeology in Ireland and provide an additional entry to our 'Who's Who' section. The newsletter begins, however, with two short articles. In the first of these Laureen Buckley writes about an interesting case of weapon trauma which she recently encountered, while in the second John Ó Néill proposes that a multidisciplinary research strategy should be advocated for the palaeoenvironmental analysis of fulachta fiadh. He also makes a request for information on lipid analysis from members of our group.

Following its ratification at the spring meeting of the Irish Association of Professional Archaeologists held in Derry's Guild Hall, the technical paper on the Treatment of Human Skeletal Remains, produced by the Human Osteoarchaeology Subcommittee of IAPA, is currently in press and should be available later this summer. This document will be the first official IAPA publication and also the first in a series of proposed technical papers by that organisation. The forthcoming document will provide a very useful guide for field archaeologists involved in the excavation of human skeletal remains and it will fill a major lacuna on the shelf of the excavation site hut.

Any comments, contributions or ideas for Issue No. 3 are most welcome and should be sent to either Laureen Buckley or Eileen Murphy at the addresses given below.

Laureen Buckley, 32 Ard-Rí, Beamore Rd., Drogheda, Co. Louth

Dr. Eileen Murphy, 24 Lille Park, Finaghy, Belfast, BT10 0LR