New cave paintings suggest that people might have lived in Ireland as long as 15,000 years ago. 

However, scientists might be about to update their textbooks, due to the markings found on the wall of a cave in County Clare. 

On The Claire Byrne Show, Futureproof presenter Jonathan McCrea explained there was “almost nothing” to suggest human life in Ireland dating back further than 10,000 years ago. 

“Until really recently, it was thought the entire country was covered in ice,” he said. 

“When Marian Dowd found a bear kneecap that was dated to 12,300 years ago, there was a lot of ‘it's ridiculous, don't be crazy’. 

“And yet now we're starting to think that actually maybe that wasn't so crazy after all.” 

The pre-historic markings.

A few months ago, Jonathan was called up by a scientist, who suggested the Futureproof team head down to Clare to have a look at some markings that had recently been discovered. 

The location is not being revealed, to protect it against potential vandalism. 

Once there, they were shown markings on the wall of a cave that might soon be the earliest indicator of life in Ireland. 

“It must be said, this is still a question mark, it's still up in the air,” Jonathan said. 

“But what they found in this cave are markings on the wall that I've seen, scrapings, hand flutings, which is sort of hand painting through what's called moon milk.

“It's like this calcite soft rock that's on the ceilings of this cave and they feel very strongly that this is evidence of humans in Ireland 12,000 to potentially 15,000 years ago. 

“Which is a total rewrite of the history books in Ireland; this changes our history, changes our story.”

The pre-historic markings.

The next step is to have the paintings carbon dated, to analyse the veracity of the scientists’ claim. 

If found to be true, it will mean Irish history is rewritten. 

“These guys fight a lot over what is and what isn't - so, we need to validate this,” Jonathan explained. 

“The team are going to go in and they're going to do carbon dating and all sorts of different types of scanning of these paintings. 

“But if they find that, it means that we have the first ever paleolithic art in Ireland. 

“We have cave markings from the time of cavemen and cavewomen.”

Main image: Jonathan McCrea. Picture by: Newstalk.