The Medieval Irish History Podcast The Medieval Irish History Podcast

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


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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


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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


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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


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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


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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


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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/medievalirishhistory/message