had to add to my MEDATS first-part notes...

...because when I sat down to write up the next part, I turned a page in my notebook and found some more scribbles! D'oh. 
Addition is marked in red.

MEDATS conference notes, part the second

Elizabeth Heckett, University College Cork
Raths to Riches
A whistle-stop tour of Irish textiles

This survey was mainly visual, with about 40 minutes of slides illustrating the discussion of pieces that Heckett is familiar with, some of which she has examined herself. She called it a whistle-stop tour, and I don't think she was introducing many completely new items to (most of) her listeners. 

All I can really provide from that talk is a list of artifacts and locations that she mentioned, along with some small comments about them, in the hopes that if Irish is your thing, you can chase up individual finds yourself.

A 'rath', BTW, is an Irish ring fort. It was misprinted 'rags to riches' in the handout, and she commented that for most textile finds, they actually come out of the ground as rags, and only later prove to be riches... 

( First stop... )