ICYMI! In order to celebrate the anniversary of Adomnán on the 23rd of September, we are re-uploading the episode discussing saint Adomnán, one of the successors of Columba and writer of the Vita Columbae, with Prof. Clancy (Professor of Celtic, University of Glasgow).
In this episode we focus on his primary monastic foundation, Iona, and his successor abbot Adomnán (d.704), famous in his own right as a saint, a stateman, a scholar, and a jurist. Prof. Clancy tells us about Adomnán's writings, including the Vita Columbae (The Life of Columba) and De Locis Sanctis (On the Holy Places), his diplomatic activities, his motivations and his methods. We also chat about the Loch Ness Monster, vikings, the Book of Kells and more.
Suggested reading/resources (see also part 1 ep. notes):
-Máire Herbert, Iona, Kells and Derry (1988)
-Thomas O'Loughlin, Adomnán at Birr, AD 697: essays in commemoration of the law of the innocents (2001)
- Jonathan M. Wooding, Rodney Aist, Thomas Owen Clancy, Thomas O'Loughlin (eds.), Adomnán of Iona: Theologian, lawmaker, peacemaker (Dublin, 2010).
- Thomas O'Loughlin, 'The library of Iona in the late seventh century: The evidence from Adomnán's 'De Locis Sanctis'', Ériu 45 (1994) 33–52
-Iona's Namescape project https://iona-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk/
-Adrián Maldonado on Columba's writing hut: https://theconversation.com/how-we-found-st-columbas-famous-writing-hut-stashed-in-a-cornish-garage-80778
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.comTwitter X: @EarlyIrishPodSupported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own.Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.Logo design: Matheus de Paula CostaMusic: Lexin_Music
This episode is excerpted from RTÉ Radio One's The History Show with Myles Dungan September 8th, 2024: https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22430394/
Thanks a million to Myles, producer Lorcan & the whole team for having Dr Niamh Wycherley on to talk about St Brigid’s legacy, medieval Irish history, women in medieval Ireland, how medieval historians are like detectives & our big Brigid’s Worlds event this weekend in Maynooth University in collaboration with Kildare County Council. Book here: https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/news-events/brigids-worlds
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).
Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod
Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own.
Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.
Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa
Music: Lexin_Music
In case you missed it! Inspired by the summer sun and tourist queues at Christchurch Cathedral, Dublinia, the Viking Splash Tour and the National Museum of Ireland (Kildare Street) etc, we bring you a REPEAT of our episode from May 24th dedicated to the man (partly) responsible for it all.
In this episode, Dr Niamh Wycherley interviews Prof Alex Woolf (University of St. Andrews) on Sitric Silkenbeard, arguably one of the best Dubliners of all time. How did he end up being the king of Dublin? What was he doing during the Battle of Clontarf? What happened to him afterwards? These questions are at the core of this week's episode of The Medieval Irish History podcast.
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).
Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod
Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own.
Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.
Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa
Music: Lexin_Music
! Apologies for the poor sound quality! Unfortunately, this was recorded online, but we promise to fix this problem for Season 2 which should begin at the end of September.
In the last episode of the season, Dr. Niamh Wycherley interviews Anne Connon on queens and queenship in medieval Ireland, a subject that has underpinned many episodes this season. Queens and noblewomen were an integral part of medieval Irish society and rulership, but often receive much less scholarly attention than their male counterparts. This episode asks fundamental questions that are imperative to a better understanding of female power in medieval Ireland, such as how can we define a queen in the medieval Irish context, where can we find them and what was their role in medieval Irish society? This episode fits into a wider framework of queenship studies and contributes to an ongoing discussion of female power and authority in Ireland during the Middle Ages.
Thank you for following and supporting the podcast, we hope you enjoyed this as much as we did! If you have any suggestions for Season 2, please e-mail us or drop us a message on X!
Suggested reading:
Connon, Anne, “The Banshenchas and the Uí Néill queens of Tara”, in: Alfred P. Smyth (ed.), Seanchas. Studies in early and medieval Irish archaeology, history and literature in honour of Francis J. Byrne, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000, pp. 98–108
Connon, Anne, “A prosopography of the early queens of Tara”, in Edel Bhreathnach (ed.), The kingship and landscape of Tara (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2005), pp. 225-327, 338-57.
Resources on the Banshenchas can be found at: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/Metrical_Banshenchas
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).
Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod
Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own.
Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.
Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa
Music: Lexin_Music
In our penultimate episode of season 1 we were incredibly lucky to get Prof. Máire Ní Mhaonaigh (Professor of Celtic and Medieval Studies, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge) out to the recording studio in Maynooth University. We chatted all about Gormlaith (died 948), an aristocratic woman, queen, reputed poet, and daughter of famous self proclaimed king of all Ireland, Flann Sinna. She left a considerable legacy, becoming one of the most written about Irish women in the Middle Ages. Prof. Ní Mhaonaigh guides us through all these varied written sources and her reputed marriages to famous Irish kings: King of Munster, Cormac mac Cuilennáin, King of Leinster, Cerball mac Muirecáin, and King of Tara, Niall Glúndub.
Suggested reading:
Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, ‘Tales of the Three Gormlaiths in Medieval Irish Literature’, Ériu 52 (2002), pp 1–24.
Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha, ‘On Gormfhlaith Daughter of Flann Sinna and the Lure of the Sovereignty Goddess’ in Seanchas: Studies in Early and Medieval Irish Archaeology, History and Literature in Honour of Francis J Byrne, ed. Alfred. P. Smyth (Dublin, 2000), pp 225–237
Gregory Toner, Manifestations of Sovereignty in Medieval Ireland (University of Cambridge, 2018)
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).
Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPodSupported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council.
Views expressed are the speakers' own.
Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.
Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa
Music: Lexin_Music
We're back to continue our chat with Prof. Clancy (Professor of Celtic, University of Glasgow) about St Columba (aka Colum Cille). In this episode we focus on his primary monastic foundation, Iona, and his successor abbot Adomnán (d.704), famous in his own right as a saint, a stateman, a scholar, and a jurist. Prof. Clancy tells us about Adomnán's writings, including the Vita Columbae (The Life of Columba) and De Locis Sanctis (On the Holy Places), his diplomatic activities, his motivations and his methods. We also chat about the Loch Ness Monster, vikings, the Book of Kells and more.
Suggested reading/resources (see also part 1 ep. notes):
-Máire Herbert, Iona, Kells and Derry (1988)
-Thomas O'Loughlin, Adomnán at Birr, AD 697: essays in commemoration of the law of the innocents (2001)
- Jonathan M. Wooding, Rodney Aist, Thomas Owen Clancy, Thomas O'Loughlin (eds.), Adomnán of Iona: Theologian, lawmaker, peacemaker (Dublin, 2010).
- Thomas O'Loughlin, 'The library of Iona in the late seventh century: The evidence from Adomnán's 'De Locis Sanctis'', Ériu 45 (1994) 33–52
-Iona's Namescape project https://iona-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk/
-Adrián Maldonado on Columba's writing hut: https://theconversation.com/how-we-found-st-columbas-famous-writing-hut-stashed-in-a-cornish-garage-80778
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).
Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod
Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own.
Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.
Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa
Music: Lexin_Music
Part 2 out June 28th.
In this episode, Dr Niamh Wycherley invites Prof. Thomas Owen Clancy (Professor of Celtic, University of Glasgow) to discuss St Columba (aka Colum Cille aka Columbkille), the so-called warrior saint of medieval Ireland. St Columba is considered one of the main patron saints of Ireland together with St Brigit and St Patrick. Part of a noble family, the saint sought exile and founded what is now one of the most well-known monasteries of medieval Ireland, Iona, which is actually located in present day Scotland. The power of Iona later developed into what historians call the 'Columban Federation', a group of monasteries under Iona's central influence.
Join us in this two-part episode accompanying the life of St. Columba, his monastery and Adomnán, his most famous hagiographer.
Suggested reading:
Adomnán of Iona, Life of St Columba, translated by Richard Sharpe (London, Penguin Classics, 1995)
Thomas Owen Clancy and Gilbert Márkus, Iona: the earliest poetry of a Celtic monastery (Edinburgh, 1995)
Thomas Owen Clancy and Dauvit Broun (eds), Spes Scotorum / Hope of Scots: St. Columba, Iona and Scotland (Edinburgh, 1999)
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday). Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own. Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva. Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa Music: Lexin_Music
In 1066 Edward the Confessor died, an event that set in motion a tripartite dispute for the throne of England, ultimately won by William of Normandy. After the Battle of Hastings, forever immortalized in the Bayeux Tapestry, William acquired the epithet 'The Conqueror' and the fate of England and surrounding territories was forever changed.
The battle of Hastings in 1066 was certainly important, but was it decisive? Who were the Normans? What happened to the losers? How did the Irish react to this event? Diarmait mac Máel na mBó, King of Leinster, was allied with Harold Godwinson, who defeated famed 'Last Viking' Harald, King of Norway, at the Battle of Stamford Bridge only three weeks before he was killed by the Normans at Hastings. Godwinson's sons sought refuge with Diarmait in the aftermath. Diarmait is later mentioned in the Irish annals as possessing the standard or banner of the king of England, but how did it get in Ireland in the first place?
These are some of the questions tackled by today's episode with Dr Caitlin Ellis (University of Oslo) and Dr Niamh Wycherley, who are looking at England from an Irish perspective and placing the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings in a wider context bridged by the Irish Sea.
Suggested reading:
Caitlin Ellis, ‘“Brian’s sword” and the “standard of the king of the Saxons” in the Irish annals: the Godwinsons, Hastings and Leinster–Munster relations’, Ériu 73 (2023), 43–62
Caitlin Ellis, ‘Ireland and the Anglo-Normans within the Irish Sea World: Rebels, Mercenaries, Allies 1066–1169’, Borders and the Norman World, ed. Daniel Armstrong, Áron Kecskés with Charlie Rozier and Leonie Hicks (Boydell & Brewer, 2023), 17–42
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday). Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own. Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva. Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa Music: Lexin_Music
In this episode, Dr Niamh Wycherley interviews Dr Alex Woolf (University of St. Andrews) on Sitric Silkenbeard, arguably one of the best Dubliners of all time. How did he end up being the king of Dublin? What was he doing during the Battle of Clontarf? What happened to him afterwards? These questions are at the core of this week's episode of The Medieval Irish History podcast.
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).
Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod
Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own.
Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.
Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa
Music: Lexin_Music
Special bonus episode! An extra treat as part of our mini series on Irish Queens. In this episode Niamh and Dr Charles Insley (The University of Manchester) chat all about what Queens Aethelflaed (Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians), Emma of Normandy and Gormlaith of Dublin have in common. Dr Insley tells us about an overarching framework of queenship which applied across the Irish Sea regions and how it can help us to understand better how the Irish conceptualised queenship and power.
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday). Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own. Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva. Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa Music: Lexin_Music
In today's episode, Dr Niamh Wycherley and Dr Donncha MacGabhann explore The Book of Kells, one of Ireland's most famous medieval manuscripts. This Irish treasure now exhibited at Trinity College Dublin, displays a carefully crafted script and astonishing miniatures, which showcase the expertise of medieval Irish artistic expression.
Where was it made? When? How? By whom? Why? Those are some of the questions that lead today's episode into an in-depth examination of one of the most important objects of medieval Ireland, an object that to this day makes up part of Irish identity itself.
Suggested reading:
Donncha MacGabhann, The Book of Kells A Masterwork Revealed: Creators, Collaboration, and Campaigns (Sidestone, 2022)
Bernard Meehan, The Book of Kells (London, 2012)
Jennifer OʼReilly, Early medieval text and image II: the Codex Amiatinus, the Book of Kells and Anglo-Saxon art, Variorum Collected Studies Series, 1080 (New York, 2019).
Richard Sharpe (ed. & trans.) Adomnán of Iona: Life of St Columba (London: Penguin, 1995)
Máire Herbert, Iona, Kells, and Derry: the history and hagiography of the monastic familia of Columba (Oxford, 1988) Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday). Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own. Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva. Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa Music: Lexin_Music
The Battle of Clontarf (1014) was one of those unique and dividing moments in Irish History, but how much do we know about it?
The traditional narrative of this event places the Irish fighting against the Norse invaders who held Dublin. Still, in this episode, Dr Denis Casey https://deniscasey.com/ shows us that this hypothesis is not entirely true.
Brian Boru, king of Ireland and killed at the battle, achieved heroic status in the Irish imaginary, but how did this story come to be? Join Niamh and Dr Denis Casey in this investigation.
Resources: https://www.tcd.ie/library/exhibitions/boru/index.php
Seán Duffy, Brian Boru and the battle of Clontarf (Dublin, 2013).
Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Brian Boru: Ireland's greatest king? (Stroud, 2007).
The various annalistic compilations can be found on the Corpus of Electronic Texts (CELT) website: https://celt.ucc.ie//publishd.html
James Henthorn Todd (tr., ed.) Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh (The war of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, or, The invasions of Ireland by the Danes and other Norsemen (London, 1867).
Magnus Magnusson & Hermann Pálsson (trs.). Njal’s Saga (Harmondsworth, 1971).
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday). Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own. Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva. Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa Music: Lexin_Music
In this episode Prof. Robin Chapman Stacey (University of Washington) chats to Niamh and Tiago about medieval Ireland's unique and remarkable legal system and the huge volume of law tracts that survive in both Latin and the Irish language. With topics ranging from status and gender to what happens when you get stung by a neighbour's bee, we discuss social theorising, how useful the study of law texts can be to the historian, and how astonishing it is that the Irish material, the most extensive in western Europe, is generally ignored outside of Ireland.
Suggested reading:
Robin Chapman Stacey, The Road to Judgment: From Custom to Court in Medieval Ireland and Wales. (Philadelphia, 1994)
Robin Chapman Stacey, Dark Speech: The Performance of Law in Early Ireland (Philadelphia, 2007)
Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin, 1988) [A bit outdated in areas but still the best introductory overview of the topic]
Fergus Kelly, Early Irish Farming. A Study Based Mainly on the Law-texts of the 7th and 8th centuries AD (Dublin, 1997). Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday). Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own. Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva. Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa Music: Lexin_Music
Continuing our tour of Ireland in late antiquity, this episode examines the life of the historical Patrick, the 'poster boy' of the period. Dr. Niamh Wycherley invites Terry O'Hagan, also known as blogger Vox Hiberionacum, to delve deep into the writings of Patrick, the real man behind Ireland's famous patron saint.
Suggested reading:
www.confessio.ie
https://voxhib.com/
This is the second episode of a trilogy on Ireland in late antiquity. The previous episode explores Ireland in the Roman Empire with Dr Elva Johnston. The final episode in this holy trinity is on language and Ogham with Prof. David Stifter and will be released March 29th.
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).
Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod
Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own.
Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.
Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa
Music: Lexin_Music
In this episode, host Dr Niamh Wycherley explores the rich world of late antiquity (approx. 3rd to 7th centuries AD) with Dr Elva Johnston (School of History, UCD) when Irish elites imported wine, foodstuffs, fancy earbuds and Christianity from the Roman world. Dr Johnston makes the important distinction that Ireland wasn't 'part of' nor 'apart from' the Roman Empire during this time. We discover that it is unhelpful to categorize this period in religious terms such as 'Early Christian Ireland' — we should not assume that belief was the dominating organising factor in society.
This is the 1st episode in a trilogy on Ireland in late antiquity. Next up we will have Terry O'Hagan (@voxhib) on St Patrick, the poster boy of Late Antique Ireland, and we'll finish with Prof. David Stifter on Ogham writing and the Early Irish language on March 29th.
Suggested reading:
-Elva Johnston, “Ireland in Late Antiquity: A Forgotten Frontier,” Studies in Late Antiquity 1.2 (2017): 107–23
-Elva Johnston, When worlds collide? Pagans and Christians in fifth- and sixth-century Ireland, Kathleen Hughes Memorial Lectures, 16, Cambridge: ASNC, 2017.
-The writings of St Patrick can be found on https://confessio.ie
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).
Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod
Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own.
Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.
Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa
Music: Lexin_Music
In this episode, Dr Niamh Wycherley and Dr Catherine Swift (Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick) take a deep dive into the complex contexts of the ultimate Queen of medieval Ireland, Gormlaith, daughter of Murchad, son of Finn (King of Leinster). Famous as the mother of kings and wife to kings, she was born into Leinster aristocracy and is remembered in the Annals of Inisfallen as the Queen of Munster. Gormlaith's life was marked by a series of important events, most notably the Battle of Clontarf, 1014, in which two sides of her family battled for the control of Dublin.
Suggested reading:
In addition to the works mentioned in the episode, see Máire NÍ Mhaonaigh, 'Tales of three Gormlaiths in early Irish literature', Ériu 52 (2002), 1–24; Ailbhe Mac Shamhráin, 'The battle of Glenn Máma, Dublin and the high-kingship of Ireland', Medieval Dublin II, ed. S. Duffy (Dublin, 2001). For the suggestion of an early marriage between Gormlaith and Mael Sechnaill (King of Tara), see A. Woolf, From Pictland to Alba: 789–1070 (Edinburgh, 2007).
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).
Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod
Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own.
Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.
Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa
Music: Lexin_Music
Was Brigit a true feminist icon? Was she even real? Or merely made up by a man to exploit the veneration of a 'pagan' goddess? All this and more in our special St Brigit's Day episode with Prof. Catherine McKenna (Harvard University) to celebrate the Brigit 1500 commemorations in 2024. Happy St Brigit's Day!
Niamh's suggested reading: Since the podcast aired Dr Elva Johnston published an excellent article, available free online, which references all the relevant reading on St Brigit, including my book (The cult of relics in early medieval Ireland) which discusses the relics of Brigit in detail and the glory of Kildare, Prof McKenna's article on Maud Gonne and the development of Brigit the goddess, and the translations of the earliest texts on St Brigit which are online. See Elva Johnston, 'Making St Brigit real in the early middle ages', Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Vol. 124C (2024), 1–26.
Hosted by Dr Niamh Wycherley.
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).
Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod
Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Science Foundation Ireland/The Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own.
Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.
Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa
Music: Lexin_Music
Suggested reading now added below. Were towns introduced by vikings? Were the Irish settled around monastic centres? What actually is a 'town' and what is 'monastic'? In this episode, Dr. Niamh Wycherley invites Dr. Michael Potterton, lecturer in the Department of History at Maynooth University, to discuss some key aspects and intersections between medieval history and archaeology. One of the subjects discussed here is the ongoing 'monastic town' debate, which has been around for decades in academic circles.
(Disclaimer: No, you haven't gone back in time. It is 2024. We recorded before Christmas and weren't clever enough to say 2024 instead of 2023 when mentioning the year.)
Suggested reading. The first two articles detailed below were mentioned during the podcast and they are both by influential historians of early Ireland. There are many more brilliant articles listed in the article by Etchingham detailed below and it is available free online (as of Feb 19th, 2024). I add a third article by John Soderberg to provide a more recent, and archaeological, perspective.
1) Charles Doherty, ‘The Monastic Town in Early Medieval Ireland’, in The Comparative History of Urban Origins in Non-Roman Europe, ed. H. Clarke and A. Simms (Oxford, 1985), pp. 45–75.
2) Colmán Etchingham, 'The Irish ‘monastic town’: is this a valid concept?', Kathleen Hughes memorial lectures 8 (Cambridge, 2010).
3) John Soderberg, 'Anthropological "civitas" and the possibility of monastic towns', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Vol. 144/145 (2014–2015), pp. 45–59.
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).
Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod
Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & the Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own.
Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.
Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa
Music: Lexin_Music
This episode explores the networks and social relations involving arguably the most famous woman of the Irish Middle Ages, Ireland's 'Helen of Troy' — Queen Derbforgaill of Bréifne. Host Dr Niamh Wycherley chats with Dr Seán Ó Hoireabhárd of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies about her independent wealth and status, whether she caused the English invasion of Ireland, and whether she and her husband Tigernán Ua Ruairc were the hot power couple of 12th century Ireland.
Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).
Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod
Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & the Irish Research Council. Views expressed are the speakers' own.
Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.
Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa
Music: Lexin_Music