Barry Raftery developed an interest in archaeology at the age of ten, after spending two summers working with his father in the excavations at Lough Gara.
[1][2] From 1969 to 1970, Raftery spent a year as a visiting professor of European prehistory at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
He travelled throughout Europe, visiting museums, research institutes and excavations, furthering his studies of the European Iron Age.
In 1981, Raftery was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt research fellowship at the University of Marburg, where he spent two years.
His first excavation resulted in the most important find of his career, the massive, Iron Age Corlea Trackway in County Longford.
[5] In 1994, Raftery published his seminal work, Pagan Celtic Ireland: The Enigma of the Irish Iron Age.