'Rubbish pits are just as interesting as artefacts, things touched by man 1,000 years ago'

Sinead Phelan/archaeologist Margaret Gowan and Co: At school her careers guidance teacher shook her head when Sinead Phelan mentioned her dream to work in archaeology. But in the decade since she graduated she has never been out of work.

The combination of massive residential and commercial construction and large infrastructure projects requiring archaeological excavation has increased work opportunities.

European legislation on the impact to the environment of development and the designation by local authorities of areas of archaeological sensitivity requiring investigation before anything can be built have all increased demands for the skills of people like Sinead. Some local authorities now employ archaeologists directly.

One of Sinead's first jobs was working in Dublin's Temple Bar. Some of the Viking-age pins, beads and pendants that she lifted from the soil on that dig are now behind glass in the National Museum.

"It's not just the artefacts, the rubbish pits are just as interesting, things touched by man 1,000 years ago."

Archaeologists are also involved with developers in the pre-planning stage, doing paper searches on sites to ascertain what might be there before the trenches are dug. With the weather and the rigours of the work "you have to love the job to be in it", Sinead says.

She once came across human remains on a site. "I was glad it was me who found it and not the bucket of a machine."