Achoimre
Volunteers is set on an archaeological site in a contemporary Irish city centre. For five months, the 'volunteers', who are all political prisoners, have been excavating 'from early Viking down to late Georgian'. All around them is 'encapsulated history, a tangible precis of the story of Irish man'. On the last day of the dig, before the builders move in, the volunteers learn that they have been sentenced to death by their fellow internees for treason.