From Paganism to Christianity: Transition of the Insular Celts As Seen Through The Archaeological Record
These centuries of tension and adaptation provide the evidence for the interaction of Christianity and Celtic religions, but one must use caution when examining Celtic religion because of potentially biased evidence.
King and magnate in medieval Ireland: Walter de Lacy, King Richard and King John
Perhaps the best way to capture the essence of the relationship between Richard, John and their magnates is to focus on one such relationship and to analyse the changes it underwent over the twenty-seven years the two brothers ruled England. The career of Walter de Lacy provides an excellent opportunity for such an analysis.
Holy Women in the British Isles: A Survey
Representations of holy women appear in a wide variety of textual, dramatic, and iconographic forms across medieval Europe during the central and late Middle Ages (c.1100-1530).
Property Rights in Celtic Irish Law
Unfortunately, many historians not specializing in the study of the ancient Irish law tracts have been unaware of the textual inaccuracies of the O’Curry – O’Donovan translations and have continued to incorporate their older unscientific work, and that of their editors, into their own work.
The Architectural Setting of the Mass in Early-medieval Ireland
Surviving churches and documents are analysed for what they may reveal about the architectural context of the mass in early-medieval Ireland.
Innocent III and England
This paper begins with the dispute between England and the papacy over an election to the see of Canterbury. The beginning of the quarrel, seemed simple enough: King John’s refusal to accept Stephen Langton as archibishop of Canterbury.
The Production and Planning Process of the Book of Kells
The Book of Kells is one of Ireland’s greatest treasures, although its origins— location and date—cannot be definitively determined.
Viking Camps in Ninth-century Ireland: Sources, Locations and Interactions
The first part will reflect on how viking bases can be identified in written records. This is followed by a study of the location of these camps.
The castle building of William Marshal in Ireland
Twelve years later, King Richard presented Isabelle in marriage to his then landless Norman warlord William the Marshall. Marshall had inherited the title of Marshall from his brother, but little in the way of property.
The Curious Career and Uncertain Past of Perkin Warbeck
Was Warbeck just another in a long line of pretenders to the throne of England, or did his appearance in Ireland in 1491 prove the innocence
of Richard III, whom most historians accuse of murdering his nephews, the Princes in the Tower?
John Scotus Eriugena
Eriugena, master of the liberal arts, translator, philologue, poet, philosopher, and theologian, ‘reinvented the greater part of the theses of Neoplatonism’, by his time largely forgotten in the Latin West.
Archaeological dig in Northern Ireland uncovers huge haul of medieval artefacts
Archaeologists have been impressed by the huge treasure trove of artefacts that have been discovered so far during excavations of a crannog in Northern Ireland.
Conquest or Colonisation: The Scandinavians in Ryedale from the Ninth to Eleventh Centuries
The study of settlement history has developed within the fields of history, archaeology and geography. As a result much of the work carried out in settlement studies has borrowed the research and conclusions of scholars from other disciplines.
New Book on ‘The Book of Kells’ launched
This new publication, presented in a cloth-bound slipcase, features 84 full-size reproductions of complete pages of the manuscript, while enlarged details allow one to relish the intricacy of elements barely visible to the naked eye.
The Archaeology of Colonialism in Medieval Ireland: Shifting Patterns of Domination and Acculturation
This project seeks to identify the processes at work in Scandinavian and Anglo- Norman colonialism in Ireland, and their interaction with the landscape, by examining the impact of each phase of activity on the settlement pattern in two representative case-study regions. The successes, failures, similarities and differences of Scandinavian and Anglo-Norman settlement and society in Ireland are examined and compared in this project in terms of three sub-phases of the overall process, namely expansion, consolidation and domination, within an overall developmental diachronic framework.
What can written sources, sculpture and archaeology tell us about Pictish identity and how this might have changed between the sixth and ninth centuries?
Arguably one of the biggest changes in how the Picts portrayed themselves is understood through their use of sculpture. The earliest is thought to date to around the fifth century (Historic Scotland, 2012) lending itself to the Class I typology.
The Three Recensions of Eriugena’s Versio Dionysii
However, as G. Théry later discovered, Traube’s point of departure—the citations of Dionysius in Hincmar’s treatise on predestination—was faulty. Since Traube published his notes on the manuscripts of the Versio, Théry has proven that the citations in Hincmar’s Liber de praedestinatione come from Hilduin’s translation rather than that of Eriugena.
Britain’s Medieval identity Crisis
Clare Downham considers how a set of saints’ lives written by a13th century monk in Cumbria help us understand how national allegiances were understood in medieval Britain.
Medieval Food – Come Dine with St. Patrick
Ireland in the 5th century: No restaurants, no take-aways, no street vendors or pre-prepared meals.
The Rise and Fall of Medieval Wicklow: An Irish ‘Game of Thrones’
This article is the story of eastern Wicklow in the later medieval period when it was torn apart by one of the worst crises recorded in human history
Irish city of Kilkenny to receive €5.5 million for ‘Medieval Mile’ tourist project
‘Kilkenny is steeped in rich culture and history, and is already one of Ireland’s top tourist centres. This investment will reinforce the city’s position as a major tourism hub and will make it more attractive for people to do business’
Holy Body, Wholly Other: Sanctity and Society in the Lives of Irish Saints
The core of hagiography, whatever else may accrete around it, is therefore the depiction of what defines a saint as a saint in the eyes of the hagiographer and his intended audience. Ireland’s hagiography must then encompass the Irish author’s understanding of an Irish saint.
A Peripheral Matter? Oceans in the East in Late Medieval Thought, Report and Cartography
Focusing in particular on the southern and eastern parts of the Ocean Sea, this article traces the broad contours of a representational and conceptual shift brought about, I argue, by the interplay between geographical thought and social (navigational, mercantile) practice.
The British History Podcast
With over seventy episodes recorded, the British History Podcast is giving people a lot to listen too.