"Some axes are definitely ornamental, but these probably date to a time when axes were becoming obsolete, just as ornamental swords tend to date to times when swords were on the way out as a weapon".

"the deposition of axes as part of grave-good assemblages, as at Caherguillamore, Co Limerick, and the deliberate inclusion of axes as part of the blocking up of sites, as at the court tomb known as Dooey's Cairn, Ballymacaldrack, Co. Antrim. The cache of axes at Ferriters Cove, Co Kerry, indicates that complex ideas surrounding the use of axes may have pre-dated the formal beginning of the Neolithic".

Gabriel Cooney.