I was born in London in 1971 and was brought up in the west of Ireland. After receiving BA (UCG 1991) and MA (NUIG 1998) degrees in archaeology I worked as a commercial-sector field archaeologist for over 20 years. Although I left archaeology as my day job in 2011, I remain involved through archaeological blogging (Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist) and my Irish Radiocarbon and Dendrochronological Dates research project. Since 1997 I have been based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where I live with my wife, Jeanne, and our two sons (Bertie & Oscar), one cat (Norman), two fish (Finlay & SuperLegoLifter), and a menagerie of imaginary, anthropomorphised dinosaurs (Bulstrode), dogs (Shakey), and bears (Bearey).