The Medieval Irish History Podcast

This week we are delighted to talk to the always enlightening Dr Christian Schweizer about his Research Ireland funded research on Dicuil, an Irish scholar who was prominent in the Carolingian Court in Aachen in the early 9th century. Dicuil wrote many fascinating texts covering a variety of disciplines including geography, astronomy and computistics, some of which, Dr Schweizer explains were annual "gifts" owed to King/Emperor Louis the Pious in return for his patronage. We also hear about other famous Irish scholars on the continent and ponder whether there are many parallels between their experiences and academia today.

Suggested reading:

-Christian Schweizer, ‘Categorizing Dicuil’s De cursu solis lunaeque’ in Peritia: Journal of the Medieval Academy of Ireland, xxxiii (2022), pp 227-48.⁠ https://doi.org/10.1484/J.PERIT.5.131906⁠

-Anthony Harvey, ‘"Battling Andrew" and the West-Brit Syndrome Twelve Hundred Years Ago’, Classics Ireland 9 (2002), 19-27.
- Anthony Harvey, How linguistics can help the historian (Dublin, 2021), 11-22.

-Sam Ottewill-Soulsby, ‘The Elephant’s Knee: Questioning Ancient Wisdom in the Ninth Century’, in The Historian’s Sketchpad, November 30, 2023.

 ⁠https://salutemmundo.wordpress.com/2023/11/30/the-elephants-knee-questioning-ancient-wisdom-in-the-ninth-century/⁠

- Tutrone, F. (2020). ‘Lucretius Franco-Hibernicus: Dicuil's Liber de astronomia and the Carolingian reception of De rerum natura’, Illinois Classical Studies 45.1, 224-52.

- Ross, H. E. and Knott, B. I. (2019), ‘Dicuil (9th century) on triangular and square numbers’, British Journal for the History of Mathematics, 34.2, 79-94.

- Dicuil, Liber de mensura orbis terrae, ed. & trans. J. J. Tierney [and Ludwig Bieler] (1967). Dublin: School of Celtic Studies.

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Dept of Music, Dept of History, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/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 in this episode!

This week Dr Janel Fontaine (Treasure Trove Officer, National Museums Scotland) talks us through some of the evidence for slavery in medieval Ireland. From the accounts of St Patrick in the 5th century to Gerald of Wales in the 12th century she explains how slavery was built into the social and economic fabric of Irish society.

Suggested reading:

- Janel Fontaine, Slave Trading in Early Medieval Europe (Manchester, 2025)

- Fergus Kelly, Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin, 1988)

- Caitlin Ellis, ‘Perceptions of the Slave Trade in Britain and Ireland: “Celtic” and “Viking” Stereotypes’, Quaestio Insularis 19 (2018), 127–57

- Paul Holm, “The slave trade of Dublin, ninth to twelfth centuries”, Peritia 5 (1986), 317–345

- David Wyatt, Slaves and Warriors in Medieval Britain and Ireland, 800-1200 (Brill, Leiden, 2009)

- Charlene Eska, “Women and slavery in the early Irish laws”,  Studia Celtica Fennica 8 (2011), 29–39

-Alice Rio, Slavery After Rome, 500-1100 (Oxford, 2017)

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Dept of Music, Dept of History, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/Irish Research Council).

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

It's time for our annual discussion of the man responsible for our national holiday in Ireland, Fáilte Ireland's global greening campaign and J. D. Vance wearing shamrock socks in the White House! Dr Elizabeth Dawson (Carlow College) is the perfect expert guide through over 14 centuries of stories celebrating St Patrick. She explains how Patrick became our patron saint, how traditions around Patrick evolved, why the 3 day weekend actually goes the whole way back to the 8th century, and from where snakes, parades and green beer come.

For those looking for the historical individual Patrick, have a listen to our episode with the excellent Terry O'Hagan from last year: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1xYXTvNMKUbOwfG9Cf061N?si=-_3QBbkGQnOx9YofGTKXVQ

Suggested reading:

Dawson, Elizabeth, Lives and Afterlives: The Hiberno-Latin Patrician Tradition, 650–1100 Studia Traditionis Theologiae, 55 (Turnhout, 2023)

Dawson, Elizabeth, https://www.confessio.ie/more/article_dawson#

Wycherley, Niamh, 'Meet St Patrick's Spin Doctor,' https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2024/0314/1036430-meet-st-patricks-spin-doctor/

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/Irish Research Council).

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

Due to popular demand our podcast producer Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva has finally come on to the other side of the mic as one of our expert guests! We chat ‘soft power’, definitions of patronage, Agnes Ní Máelsechlainn ‘An Caillech Mór’ (d.1196), St Mary’s Arrouaisian monastery, Clonard, & reflections on the study of medieval Irish history. Tiago is over half way through his PhD research in the Department of Early Irish, Maynooth University, under the supervision of Dr Wycherley, working on the Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland Pathway project ‘Power and patronage in medieval Ireland: Clonard from the sixth to twelfth centuries’. 

Tiago’s research aims to understand how women exercised power and authority in medieval Ireland by operating socio-cultural and political networks of patronage. This investigation is framed around noblewomen and religious women of the 12th century due to its intense and transformative character, but it allows certain chronological flexibility in order to understand the development of the concept and exercise of female power. To fill this epistemological lacuna, he employs an interdisciplinary approach anchored in a wide array of sources such as the corpus of secular genealogies, the Banshenchas and annalistic evidence. 

Suggested reading:

• Tiago Veloso Silva, The other Brigids: meet the forgotten mighty women of Medieval Ireland, https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0130/1493745-medieval-ireland-kildare-women-st-brigid-darlugdach-gnathnat-sebdann-muireann-and-coblaith-sarnat/

• Tracy Collins, Female Monasticism in Medieval Ireland: An Archaeology (Cork, 2021)

• Burke, Peter. History and social theory (Cambridge, 2005)

• Hall, Dianne. Women and the Church in Medieval Ireland (Dublin, 2008)

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/Irish Research Council).

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

"I have no claim to anything here save through her". These are the reputed words of one of the most famous knights in English history, William Marshal, describing his wife Isabel, daughter of Aoife and Strongbow. In honour of St Valentine's Day Dr John Marshall (Lancaster University) gives us the full story of Isabel de Clare — a fascinating noblewoman, whose life, inheritance and influence crossed multiple (shifting) territorial boundaries. Dr Marshall offers complex and sometimes poignant insights, explaining to us how, being "born to an English father from the Welsh March and an Irish royal mother, Isabel's life crossed geographic and cultural divides, though neither of these were as rigid as we tend to think.”

Suggested reading:

• You can find details on John's publications at: https://lancaster.academia.edu/JohnMarshall
• The history of William Marshal , eds A. J. Holden, S. Gregory, and D. Crouch (3 vols, London, 2002)
• L. Mitchell, ‘‘The most perfect knights’ Countess: Isabella de Clare, her daughters, and women’s exercise of power and influence, 1190–ca. 1250’ in H. J. Tanner (ed.), Medieval elite women and the exercise of power, 1100–1400: moving beyond the exceptionalist debate (London, 2019), 45–65
• J. Bradley, C. Ó Drisceoil and M. Potterton (eds), William Marshal and Ireland (Dublin, 2020)

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/Irish Research Council).

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

As a follow up to our episode on the English Conquest with Dr Colin Veach (University of Hull) we examine the bias inherent in the contemporary sources, including the famous Laudabiliter papal bull, the works of Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis/Gerald de Barri) , and the 'Song of Dermot and the Earl'. We also discuss how historians can best approach this complicated period of Irish history.

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/Irish Research Council).

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

Happy St Brigit's weekend! (For links to Brigit content see below). Instead of Brigit we were eager to release an episode we recorded just before Christmas with the brilliant Dr Colin Veach, from the University of Hull, on the English colonisation of Ireland, which may be known to some of you as the Anglo-Norman Invasion. Today’s episode mostly focusses on the English perspective of the conquest. Whether it was inevitable, how we should frame the events, English or Anglo-Norman etc. We talk Diarmaid Mac Murchada or in English, Dermot McMurrough and Strongbow, King Henry II and the bad King John, but we’ll cover Rory O’Connor and other aspects in more detail in future episodes. We’ve an extra super short bonus episode which we will release next week on the initial propaganda that was released justifying the English invasion and how historians should approach the sources today.

Suggested reading:

Colin Veach, From Kingdom to Colony: Framing the English Conquest of Ireland , The English Historical Review, 2024;, ceae210, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/ceae210

Brigit links:

Niamh on the Bitesize Irish Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om-vObx_1gg

Tiago's article on RTÉ Brainstorm: https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0130/1493745-medieval-ireland-kildare-women-st-brigid-darlugdach-gnathnat-sebdann-muireann-and-coblaith-sarnat/

Podcast episode with Prof. Catherine McKenna last year:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1GYSJHylMlTNuKUSSzLhN1?si=fcdf72608d9142b7

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/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, Niamh Wycherley interviews Mairéad Finnegan, a PhD researcher in Maynooth University, about dress, clothing and fashion in late medieval Ireland (12th to 16th centuries). Mairéad brilliantly paints a vivid picture of how a medieval Irish person would express their ethnic identity, status, gender or community through their clothes and provides a glimpse into the private lives of medieval Irish men and women. Mairéad talks sumptuary laws, tomb effigies and dodgy hairstyles and indulges all of Niamh's random musings on short shorts, long shoes and colourful clothing. We ask the big questions like who wore it best (Waterford vs Limerick edition) in the 14th century and how does one deal with blackberry stains? Mairéad is half way through her PhD research in the Department of Early Irish (supervisor Prof. Deborah Hayden) and the Department of History (supervisor Dr Michael Potterton).

Suggested reading:

Sparky Booker, 'Moustaches, Mantles, and Saffron Shirts: What Motivated Sumptuary Law in Medieval English Ireland?' Speculum 96/3 (July 2021): https://doras.dcu.ie/26481/1/Speculum%20booker%20mantles%20moustaches%20final.pdf Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/Irish Research Council).

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

Happy New Year! To soothe fragile minds after the Christmas break we are easing you in to 2025 with St Columbanus part 2 — a further, more relaxed, reflection, on the career and legacy of Irish monastic founder Columbanus with Dr Alexander O'Hara. Do listen to our previous episode from November 22nd first if you get the chance.

In this episode, we hear lots of Columbanus' own words, from his own writings. Dr O'Hara discusses how Columbanus became a dynastic holy man to the Merovingians, high politics, murder, marriage alliances, the appeal of Irish radical asceticism, the tension between temporal and spiritual power, the physical layout of Irish monastic sites, the legacy of St Gall (Sankt Gallen).

Suggested reading:

Sancti Columbani Opera, ed. G. S. M. Walker, (Scriptores Latini Hiberniae Vol. II) The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, (Dublin, 1957 [repr. 1970])

Ian Wood, The Merovingian Kingdoms (450-751) (London, 1994)

Alexander O'Hara (ed.), Saint Columbanus: Selected Writings (Veritas, Dublin, 2015) 

J.-Michel Reaux Colvin & Alexander O'Hara, "Réécriture and the cultus of Saint Gallus, ca. 680-850: A fidelissimis testibus indicata", Traditio 79 (2024)

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/Irish Research Council).

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

Happy Christmas everyone! In today's episode, Professor Liam Breatnach (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), one of Ireland's leading experts on the Old/Middle Irish language, medieval Irish law (so-called Brehon Law), poets and the Irish language, explains what the law tracts can tell us about medieval Irish society, the intellectual networks and frameworks that influenced and were influenced by the large corpus of legal material, and how the highly stratified Irish society understood itself in legal terms. We chat cats, what people ate in medieval Ireland, the Senchas Már, lost texts, polygamy, zombie concepts and much more!

Suggested reading: Breatnach, Liam, ‘On Old Irish Collective and Abstract Nouns, the Meaning of cétmuinter, and Marriage in Early Mediaeval Ireland’, Ériu 66 (2016).

‘The Early Irish Law Text Senchas Már and the Question of its Date’. E.C. Quiggin Memorial Lectures 13 (Cambridge 2011)

Breatnach, Liam, A Companion to the Corpus Iuris Hibernici, Early Irish Law Series 5 (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies 2005)

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/Irish Research Council).

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

Today, Dr Sharon Greene tells us how archaeologists explore how people lived in the past, what they believed and so on through the material remains they left behind. This can sometimes confirm or deny what the written records tell us – but most often it adds another layer to our understanding medieval Ireland. We chat about disciplinary challenges, how scholars can work together, Killeen Cormac, ringforts, cattle, sheep, St Brigit, ogham stones, the 'remote' western islands and settlement cemeteries.

Suggested reading:

OʼSullivan, Aidan, Finbar McCormick, Thomas R. Kerr, and Lorcan Harney, Early medieval Ireland, AD 400–1100: the evidence from archaeological excavations (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2014).

Sharon Greene, 'Killeen Cormac – the archaeology and history of a significant early Christian foundation', Journal of the County Kildare Archaeological Society, Volume 20 2012/2013

Fergus Kelly, Early Irish farming: a study based mainly on the law-texts of the 7th and 8th centuries AD, Early Irish Law Series, 4 (Dublin: School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1997)

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/Irish Research Council).

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

Happy anniversary to St Columbanus, famous as a monastic founder, and a symbol of a united Europe, who is remembered as having died on Nov 23rd in the year 615! (Happy birthday also to Dr O'Hara's wife! More info in episode). Columbanus aficionado Dr Alexander O'Hara brings us through Columbanus' auspicious beginnings as a handsome aristocrat in Leinster, his superlative scholarly career in Bangor, his illustrious travels around Europe and the cosmopolitan mixed monastic communities he founded in Annegray, Luxeuil and Bobbio. Referring to Columbanus' monks as akin to the SAS, O'Hara answers the question was he 'zero craic' and explains his impressive literary legacy.

Suggested reading:

Alexander O'Hara, “A lacuna in Irish historiography: the Irish peregrini from Eoin MacNeill to The Cambridge history of Ireland and beyond,” Irish Historical Studies 47 (2023), 1-18

Alexander O'Hara (ed.), Columbanus and the Peoples of Post-Roman Europe (Oxford University Press, 2018) 

O'Hara, Jonas of Bobbio and the Legacy of Columbanus: Sanctity and Community in the Seventh Century (Oxford University Press, 2018)

O'Hara (ed.), Saint Columbanus: Selected Writings (Veritas, Dublin, 2015) 

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/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, we are joined by Dr Chantal Kobel (Department of Early Irish, Maynooth University) to chat all about medieval Irish manuscripts (literally documents written by hand) and the various specialists skills and tools needed to read these precious historical sources. From palaeography (the study of old handwriting and writing systems) to codicology (study of the actual books) we learn about how manuscripts were physically made (trigger warning, it gets a little gruesome!), what they feel like, why so few survive, where you can see them for yourselves (online or Royal Irish Academy!), whether some more could be discovered, and whether any were written by women. Some notable mentions: Faddan More Psalter, Rawlinson B502 (Book of Glendalough?), Book of Armagh, Aided Chonchobair ‘The violent death of Conchobar.

Suggested resources:

Irish Script on Screen (ISOS): www.isos.dias.ie Manuscripts with Irish Associations (MIra): http://www.mira.ie/

e-Codices: https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en

John Gillis, The Faddan More Psalter: The Discovery and Conservation of a Medieval Treasure (Dublin, 2021).

Richard Sharpe, ‘Books from Ireland, fifth to ninth centuries’, Peritia 21 (2010), 1–55.

Donnchadh Ó Corráin, ‘What happened Ireland’s medieval manuscripts?’, Peritia 22-23 (2011–2012), 191–223.

Charles Plummer, ‘On the colophons and marginalia of Irish scribes’, Proceedings of the British Academy 12 (1926), 11–44.

Chantal Kobel, “A critical edition of Aided Chonchobair ‘The violent death of Conchobar’: with translation, textual notes and bibliography”, PhD thesis, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Irish and Celtic Studies, 2015.

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/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 week we chat to Anthony Candon about one of the greatest men in Irish history — Muirchertach Ua Briain (c.1050–1119), king of Munster, arguably king of all Ireland, and great-grandson of Brian Bóru. Tony tells us all about Muirchertach's reputation as a great military leader, his influence on the Irish Church, his international status outside of Ireland, the astute marriage alliances he brokered for his daughters with famous Norwegian king Magnus Barelegs and Arnulf de Montgomery, brother of Robert de Bellême, earl of Shrewsbury. We also chat how appropriate a camel is as a diplomatic gift, the Rock of Cashel and decapitated head trophies in medieval Irish warfare.

You can find Anthony Candon's published articles on academia.edu

Suggested reading:

Anthony Candon, “Power, politics and polygamy: women and marriage in late pre-Norman Ireland”, in: Damian Bracken, and Dagmar Ó Riain-Raedel (eds), Ireland and Europe in the twelfth century: reform and renewal (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006) 06–127

Anthony Candon, ‘Muirchertach Ua Briain, politics and naval activity in the Irish Sea, 1075 to 1119’, Gearóid Mac Niocaill and Patrick F. Wallace (ed.), Keimelia: studies in medieval archaeology and history in memory of Tom Delaney (1987), 397–415

Anthony Candon, ‘Barefaced effrontery: secular and ecclesiastical politics in early twelfth-century Ireland’, Seanchas Ard Mhacha, xiv, no. 2 (1991), 1–25

For the 12th century Church see Marie Therese Flanagan, The transformation of the Irish church in the twelfth century (Woodbridge, 2013).

For the Rock of Cashel listen to Dr Patrick Gleeson on the Amplify Archaeology Podcast https://open.spotify.com/episode/63Sv8kZNbP12NT4HoRAgUp?si=1dda663e986b4e53

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/Irish Research Council).

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

Welcome back to the second season of The Medieval Irish History Podcast!

We are very excited to be back with you all! Today, in our very first episode of the new season, we are back with Dr Elizabeth Boyle to talk little bit about Early Irish Literature. You have probably heard about some key figures of medieval Irish literature, such as Cú Chulainn and Queen Medb from Táin Bó Cúailnge, but how can we as historians (or interested readers) interpret these sagas? Are they myths that provide a window into Ireland's past or are they the result of a cleric's fertile imagination?

Suggested reading:

– For translations of a selection of Irish saga narratives see Jeffrey Gantz, Early Irish Myths and Sagas (Penguin, 1981) but please disregard the outdated introduction.

– Ann Dooley, Playing the Hero: Reading the Irish Saga Táin Bó Cúailnge (Toronto, 2006)

– Elizabeth Boyle, Fierce Appetites (Dublin and London, 2022)

– Elizabeth Boyle, 'Early Medieval Perspectives on Pre-Christian Traditions in the Celtic World' In: Prognostication in the Medieval World: A Handbook (Berlin, 2020).

– Gregory Toner, ‘Wise Women and Wanton Warriors in Early Irish Literature’ in Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, xxx (2010), pp 259–27

– Angela Bourke et al (eds), The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing Volume IV: Irish Women’s Writings and Traditions (Cork 2002)

– Thomas Owen Clancy, ‘Women poets in early medieval Ireland’, in C. E. Meek & M. K. Simms (eds), The Fragility of her Sex? Medieval Irish Women in their European Context (Dublin, 1996), pp. 43–72

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday).

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/Irish Research Council).

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

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: [email protected]

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

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected] 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: [email protected]

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