Seán Pádraig Ó Ríordáin MRIA (17 December 1904 – 11 April 1957) was an Irish archaeologist who specialised primarily in the study of the prehistory and early medieval history of Ireland.
He was one of the preeminent Irish archaeologists of the early 20th century, and was noted for his excavations at Lough Gur, County Limerick, and for his innovations in archaeological fieldwork.
[2] Ó Ríordáin had a keen interest in the Irish language and culture, and it was as a student of Canon Patrick Power, Professor of Archaeology at UCC, that he was introduced to the subject.
In 1930, he obtained a Master of Arts degree with first-class honours, and the following year, he was awarded a coveted National University of Ireland (NUI) travelling studentship, which enabled him to study archaeological field techniques and museum collections in Great Britain and Continental Europe.
In his obituary of Ó Ríordáin in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, O'Kelly credited him with transforming the archaeology department at UCD in particular.
[13] In 1958, he appeared on an episode of the BBC panel show Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?, chaired by Daniel, identifying different objects and artefacts alongside fellow archaeologists V. Gordon Childe and Mortimer Wheeler, the latter being the programme's regular expert panellist.
[14] Ó Ríordáin wrote numerous papers and excavation reports which were published in archaeological journals, and his 1942 book Antiquities of the Irish countryside has been republished in five editions.