We delight in welcoming Eireann as a new Tour Director to ACE and wanted to sit down with her to get to know how she became so passionate about ancient history. Eireann’s passion for ancient history comes from an exploration of identity and self by exploring civilisations and people of the classical world. We are pleased to be able to share Eireann’s words with you in a pair of articles. In this, the first part, we have transcribed our interview with Eireann below.
Eireann Marshall
Eireann Marshall is a Research Associate and Associate Lecturer with the Open University. In 2019, she was chosen as the Top History & Culture Guide for Wanderlust magazine's World Guide Award.
“What are we, if we're not the children of Athens and Rome?”
– Eireann Marshall
'Who am I?’ is really important to me because I have no idea who I am. I have three passports. I root for the US in the Olympics and Italy in the World Cup and Arsenal when I’m in England and what does all that mean? Who knows? But what I do know is I'm always looking and going back to the beginning.
I didn't even realise I really liked history because it was taught so badly when I was in school. I was raised in Vicenza – I was raised, I kid you not, in a 15th century villa! Everything around me was old, from the Terrazzo floors to the ceilings, which were incredibly high, and the frozen windows that we had because the heating was so bad. History just seeped into my bones, I think. Vicenza is old and living in a really old villa gave me a passion for it without even knowing it.
But then I went to New York, I went to Columbia at 17. My very first term, I took a course on Greek philosophy, and I was bowled over. So when I go to a site today and I see something new – I saw a part of Carthage recently that I haven't seen ever – it's overwhelming. And I got that from that first term in college when all of that latent love of history came to be.
I love ancient history above all, I think because it's our roots, isn't it? What are we, if we're not the children of Athens and Rome? Some might argue you should be looking at the Babylonians and Assyrians, that's absolutely true, and I find that interesting too. But the fact of the matter is that we have based the western world on Greece and Rome and understanding them is understanding us. So I find it important and exciting!
The Colosseum
My kids tease me about it because I've forever taken them around ancient sites. We don't go on beachy holidays and their holidays have always been my recces. “Let's look at these ancient sites and whatever,” they tease. But there have been some moments where we’ve seen something so extraordinarily beautiful or touching.
I remember going to the Pompeii laboratory and looking at some of the casts, and the staff at the laboratory – the people who are doing the reconstructions and the renovations – gave me that year-old baby to hold, the one found in the house of Fabius Rufus, I think. There's a mother and a father there, the whole family group's lying there. There's this young one that the mother's holding, and then there's a little one lying down, I think he was already dead at the time. And the researcher gave me the baby to hold. You're holding not just a being, but you're holding a whole narrative there. You're holding that connection to the past, which I'm always looking for.
I ask myself, how do I turn the corner in Pompeii or in Rome and find an ancient Roman? – and I look for those moments. Another one is going to the Roman apartment block, the one right by the Capitoline Hill, the Insula dell'Ara Coeli. I've looked at it whilst studying it and I've also seen Mary Beard and Ed Bispham lying on the ground in that apartment block looking at it. But going in for the first time a couple of years ago, it was just staggering. Because you are looking at that place you've been studying for a long time and you get to feel connected. I’m not there in time, but I am there in space, and I know in that nook, or on that floor, there were some people, and that's why I love touring.
Decorative details at Insula dell'Ara Coeli
I've also gone to places with people who have no idea what they're looking at and don't have that connection yet. So my job as a Tour Director is to bring that to life. I don't really care so much about questions such as ‘how many columns does this temple have?’, or ‘how many rooms does this house have?’ – what I care about is, ‘how do I bring this to life?...where are the people in this room?..., where are the people in this building? and how can I populate this?’
…I want to present a story to the travellers. I want to wrap them into that story. They might read a historical novel, but going on a tour is becoming that historical novel: that’s what I think is so special.
To view tours led by Eireann Marshall, click below:
View tours with Eireann Marshall
Ahead of her Early Christian and Medieval Rome tour in September 2024, Eireann shared the highlights of a returning visit to Rome. To read more about Eireann’s Rome highlights, read the second article in this pair by clicking below:
Everyday Life in Rome
5 - 11 November 2025
with Eireann Marshall
Journey to the Caput Mundi or 'Capital of the World', Rome with Tour Director Eireann Marshall and discover the cradle of Western civilisation. Uncover remnants of Ancient Rome across the city including the largest stone map of the Roman Republic at the Museo della Forma Urbis Romae as well as wandering along the Appian Way one of the earliest and most strategically significant roads of the capital.
Image credits:
Colosseum | Image by Spencer Davis on Unsplash
Insula | Image by Dietmar Rabich on Wikimedia Commons via CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED
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