Found this little guy last weekend as I walked on Loftus Bay. He is a fossilised Sponge approximately 340 million years old (Lower Carboniferous). Sponges are marine based animals and would have generally lived their lives attached to the seafloor. Feeding by filtering food particles out of the water through their bodies.
When this guy was still alive Ireland would have been just south of the equator, experiencing a more tropical climate!