15 episodes
The Medieval Irish History Podcast The Medieval Irish History Podcast
-
- History
-
-
4.1 • 11 Ratings
-
Hosted by Dr. Niamh Wycherley, this podcast shows that medieval Irish history is complex and dynamic — not at all stuffy or static. Via lively and engaging chats with leading experts, it explores aspects of a largely ignored, but commonly evoked, period, and shares new and exciting research on medieval Ireland.
medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
Twitter X: @EarlyIrishPod
Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, and 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
-
Queenship in the Irish Sea World with Dr Charles Insley
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
---
Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/medievalirishhistory/message -
The Book of Kells with Dr Donncha MacGabhann
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
---
Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/medievalirishhistory/message -
Winners and Losers at the Battle of Clontarf with Dr Denis Casey
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
---
Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/medievalirishhistory/message -
Early Irish Law with Prof. Robin Chapman Stacey
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
---
Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/medievalirishhistory/message -
Ogham and the Early Irish language with Prof. David Stifter
Featuring the greatest periwinkle story ever told, this episode explores the evidence for the language spoken in Ireland in late antiquity with the highly entertaining Prof. David Stifter (Maynooth University). He tells us all about the uniqueness of the ogham/ogam writing script (which may or may not have been invented by a Kerryman) and how difficult Old Irish is to learn. Stay tuned to the end to hear Prof. Stifter recite/translate some lines and poetry in Old Irish, Modern Irish, Latin and German.
This is the third and final episode of our little trilogy on Ireland in late antiquity. The first two episodes are 'Ireland in the Roman Empire with Dr Elva Johnston' and 'St Patrick with Terry O'Hagan'.
Happy Easter!
Suggested reading/links:
Ogam booklet by David Stifter: https://shop.universitybooks.ie/Books/Ogam-Language-Writing-Epigraphy_9788413404226
David Stifter, Sengoidelc: Old Irish for Beginners (Syracuse, 2006) https://shop.universitybooks.ie/Books/SENGOIDELC-OLD-IRISH-FOR-BEGINNERS_9780815630722
The Og(h)am project website, esp blog on spelling and pronounciation: https://ogham.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/2021/12/06/you-say-ogham-and-i-say ogam/#:~:text=There%20are%20those%20who%20speak,as%20if%20you%20were%20gargling).
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
---
Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/medievalirishhistory/message -
St Patrick with Terry O'Hagan
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
---
Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/medievalirishhistory/message
Customer Reviews
Intrigued
Intrigued with the discussions and revelations on Medieval Irish History. Thank you (and your guests) for this podcast.
The Medieval Irish History podcast
I am loving this podcast! Love early Irish Medieval & early modern era history. So happy this is an entirely Irish affair, focussing on Irish stories, histories,women, key historical figures & the cultural reference points of the day. Please make thousands more…I’ll be glued to every one of them!
Shows potential
This podcast has great potential to be both interesting and informative for listeners. Great topics covered and the knowledge of the guest speakers shines through. It is frustrating at times as just when the guest speakers are explaining a topic or giving an interesting slant on a topic, the presenter butts in and speaks over them and steers the conversation away. As a result the conversation becomes very disjointed and hard to follow. I find that I have to pause frequently to go away and look up particular aspects of the conversation. Allowing the guest speakers to impart their knowledge without frequent interruption would allow listeners without an academic background in Medieval History to enjoy and get the most from the podcast.