This week on Talking History, we're excavating the history of Medieval Dublin - finding out what life was like back then and what archaeological evidence can reveal. Joining Patrick Geoghegan is:

• Ruth Johnson, Dublin’s City Archaeologist, protecting, managing and investigating the city’s oldest heritage. She completed a PhD in Medieval History at TCD.

• Paul Duffy, archaeologist, historian and author, specialising in medieval and urban archaeology. His historical research centres on the Crusades and, in particular, Irish involvement in the thirteenth century Cathar Crusade in Languedoc.

• Dr Grace O’Keeffe, a medieval historian based in Dublin and the editor of Archaeology Ireland. Her doctoral research in TCD was on the hospital of St John the Baptist in medieval Dublin.

• And Dr Catherine Swift, Department of History, Mary Immaculate College Limerick. Research interests include Medieval Ireland with particular interest in ogham stones, St Patrick, Old Irish historical sources, Scandinavian society and settlement in Ireland, Brian Boru and the kingdom of Thomond, Anglo-Norman colony of the Mid-West and DNA studies of medieval Irish population. She has an M.Phil in Archaeology from the University of Durham, a D.Phil in History from University of Oxford and an M.Phil in Early Irish Language.