Welcome to the last episode of season two! Thank you everyone for their continued support. Today we chat to one of the foremost experts on the Penitentials, Dr Elaine Pereira Farrell, who explains how these prescriptive documents list various sins and the corresponding recommended penances (e.g. fasting, prayers, fines). We learn how the Penitential texts are valuable sources to the historian as they were used by priests engaged in pastoral work and as such can be reflective of societal behaviours, attitudes, and beliefs.

Further resources:

https://penitentials.com/

Elaine Pereira Farrell, 'Penance and Punishment in Early Medieval Ireland' Peritia (2021) 32, 57–78

Rob Meens, Penance in Medieval Europe, 600–1200 (Cambridge University Press, 2014).

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva

Supported by Maynooth University, especially the International Centre for Irish Cultural Heritage, the Dept of Early Irish, the Dept of Music, the Dept of History, & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

We are back this week in the National Museum of Ireland, Archaeology, on Kildare Street, in Dublin City centre, which is open 7 days a week and free to the public. We are joined by Maeve Sikora, Keeper of Irish Antiquities, and Assistant Keeper Matt Seaver. In addition to chatting more about the Words on the Wave exhibition, Maeve and Matt tell us about their jobs preserving Irish material heritage and culture and many of the cool artefacts the public can view in the museum including the Ardagh Chalice, the Faddan More Psalter, the Springmount tablets, the Tara brooch and some of the precious items on display from medieval Clonard.

The Words on the Wave exhibition is running May 30th to Oct 24th. For more details see https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museums/Archaeology/Exhibitions/Words-on-the-Wave-Ireland-and-St-Gallen-in-Early-M

Exhibition Advisors: Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Cornel Dora, Philipp Lenz, John Gillis, Bernard Meehan, Raghnall Ó Floinn, Pádraig Ó Macháin, Timothy O'Neill.

Lending Institutions: Stiftsbibliotek St. Gallen; L'abbaye de Saint Maurice d'Agaune; Cork Public Museum.

Lead Partners: Department of Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport; Office of Public Works.

Supporting Partners: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; The Embassy of Switzerland in Ireland; The Embassy of Ireland to Switzerland; The Houses of the Oireachtas, The Discovery Programme; The Inks and Skins Project, Department of Modern Irish, University of Cork; The Royal Irish Academy; The School of Genetics and Microbiology, Trinity College Dublin; The School of Archaeology, University College Dublin; National Monuments Service, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage; Department of Archaeology, University College Cork; Transport Infrastructure Ireland; Limerick County Council; Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit; Archaeology Plan; Courtney Deery Archaeology; Icon Archaeology; Archaeology Management Solutions; Vikingeskibmuseet, Roskilde; The Hunt Museum, Limerick; Eureka Secondary School (Kells, Co. Meath); Flade Klosterschulhaus (St. Gallen); Gallen Community School (Ferbane, Co. Offaly); Coláiste Muire (Ballymote, Co. Sligo).

Expert Assistance: Edward Bourke, Daniel Bradley, Sadbh Carrick, Ian Doyle, James Eogan, Silvio Frigg, Fenella G. France, Anna Hoffman, Pádraig Ó Macháin, Pierre-Alain Mariaux, Ursula Mattenberger, Valeria Marriangeli, Griffin Murray, TImothy O'Neill, John Sheehan and Andrew Woods.

Replicas: Potted History; Laura Quinn Design; John Nicholl; Brendan O'Neill.

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva

Supported by Maynooth University, especially the International Centre for Irish Cultural Heritage, the Dept of Early Irish, the Dept of Music, the Dept of History, & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

This week Matt Seaver, Assistant Keeper of Irish Antiquities and Dr Diarmuid Ó Riain, curatorial researcher, welcomed us in to the National Museum of Ireland, Kildare St. to see the unique new exhibition: Words on the Wave. This is an incredible display of precious manuscripts from the Abbey of St Gall, Switzerland — some returning to Ireland for the first time in 1000 years — alongside spectacular objects from the Irish world from which they emerged. Running May 30th to Oct 24th. For more details see https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museums/Archaeology/Exhibitions/Words-on-the-Wave-Ireland-and-St-Gallen-in-Early-M

Exhibition Advisors: Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Cornel Dora, Philipp Lenz, John Gillis, Bernard Meehan, Raghnall Ó Floinn, Pádraig Ó Macháin, Timothy O'Neill.

Lending Institutions: Stiftsbibliotek St. Gallen; L'abbaye de Saint Maurice d'Agaune; Cork Public Museum.

Lead Partners: Department of Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport; Office of Public Works.

Supporting Partners: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; The Embassy of Switzerland in Ireland; The Embassy of Ireland to Switzerland; The Houses of the Oireachtas, The Discovery Programme; The Inks and Skins Project, Department of Modern Irish, University of Cork; The Royal Irish Academy; The School of Genetics and Microbiology, Trinity College Dublin; The School of Archaeology, University College Dublin; National Monuments Service, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage; Department of Archaeology, University College Cork; Transport Infrastructure Ireland; Limerick County Council; Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit; Archaeology Plan; Courtney Deery Archaeology; Icon Archaeology; Archaeology Management Solutions; Vikingeskibmuseet, Roskilde; The Hunt Museum, Limerick; Eureka Secondary School (Kells, Co. Meath); Flade Klosterschulhaus (St. Gallen); Gallen Community School (Ferbane, Co. Offaly); Coláiste Muire (Ballymote, Co. Sligo).

Expert Assistance: Edward Bourke, Daniel Bradley, Sadbh Carrick, Ian Doyle, James Eogan, Silvio Frigg, Fenella G. France, Anna Hoffman, Pádraig Ó Macháin, Pierre-Alain Mariaux, Ursula Mattenberger, Valeria Marriangeli, Griffin Murray, TImothy O'Neill, John Sheehan and Andrew Woods.

Replicas: Potted History; Laura Quinn Design; John Nicholl; Brendan O'Neill.

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva

Supported by Maynooth University, especially the International Centre for Irish Cultural Heritage, the Dept of Early Irish, the Dept of Music, the Dept of History, & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

In this episode, we chat about the incredible academic and public resource that is the Library in the Royal Irish Academy. Academy Librarian Barbara McCormack tells us all about the collection of medieval manuscripts including some of Ireland's oldest manuscripts the Cathach of Columba and the Stowe Missal. Please visit the library yourself or check out the collections: https://www.ria.ie/library/visiting-the-library/ and https://www.isos.dias.ie/collection/ria.html

Barbara is responsible for the strategic direction of the Library and Archive, the information services provided by the Library, and the curation of the world’s largest collection of manuscripts in the Irish language, as well as numerous other manuscript and archival collections, books and collections in other formats.

You can get tickets to the events Barbara discussed here: https://www.ria.ie/events/

For more on the Stowe Missal see the blog by Lars Nooij here: https://www.ria.ie/blog/bringing-the-stowe-missal-to-life/

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by Maynooth University, especially the International Centre for Irish Cultural Heritage, the Dept of Early Irish, the Dept of Music, the Dept of History, & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

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Dr Victoria McAlister from Towson University, Maryland, on everything you ever wanted to know about castles! Featuring all the big hits, Maynooth Castle, Bunratty, Blarney, Trim, the Rock of Dunamase, Clonard castle, Ferrycarrig, Carrickfergus, Irish castles, Anglo-Norman castles, Tower houses, colonialism, we cover it all. Dr McAlister busts some myths and explains how new advances in technology can assist the archaeologist and historian in their understanding of settlement around castles and the importance of considering the things we cannot see.

Suggested reading:

-Victoria McAlister, The Irish Tower House: Society, Economy and Environment c. 1300-1650 (Manchester University Press, hardback 2019, paperback 2021)

-https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/great-castles-of-europe

-Tom McNeill, Castles in Ireland: feudal power in a Gaelic world (Routledge, 1997)

-Tadhg O'Keeffe, Ireland Encastellated, AD 950–1550; Insular castle-building in its European context (Four Courts Press, 2021)

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

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