This thesis aims to restore Wood-Martin to his place in the story of the development of archaeology in Ireland. Not for his contributions alone, but as an individual whose story intersects with events and movements taking place in Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born amidst the ravages of the Great Famine, and educated in a post-Enlightenment Europe, Wood-Martin is representative of other landed men of his time. Situated within the story of Irish nationalism and the formation of twentieth-century Irish identity, he is part of the story of the formation of the Irish Republic. Integrated into a network of scientists and scholars engaged with understanding the origins of man and the formation of the world as they knew it, grappling with ideas of faith and man's place in the universe, Wood-Martin exemplifies the individuals who worked to formalize and professionalize the sciences as independent disciplines.