The Medieval Irish History Podcast

For our last episode in season 3 we are joined by our erudite colleague in the Department of Music, Prof. Karen Desmond to learn how the discipline of musicology contributes to our understanding of medieval history.

We are brought around Europe, Britain and Ireland through the Middle Ages and chat about polyphony, vocal music, plainchant, the motivations for writing music down, and much more.

We discover that the development of music notation can tell us a lot about the connections between communities and how music was created: that a lot of music was not just 'vibes'-based, but used a lot of theory and was a collaborative effort; that music can tell us about the society and communities in which they were produced; and that there were many different kinds of music traditions reflecting local and cultural contexts.

The name of the piece of music featured in the episode is Au cuer ai en mai and the performers are Anonymous 4 from their Love’s Illusion album.

Suggested resources:

- Karen Desmond, Music and the Moderni, 1300-1350: The Ars Nova in Theory and Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2018)

- BROKENSONG project website: https://ahi.maynoothuniversity.ie/brokensong/

- Ann Buckley, 'Music and musicians in medieval Irish society', Early Music, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2, May 2000, 165–192

- Sara Gibbs Casey, ‘Through a glass, darkly’: Steps towards reconstructing Irish chant from the neumes of the Drummond Missal, Early Music, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2, May 2000, 205–216

- John Milson on Josquin and the technique of ’stretto fuga’ (a term Milsom coined) is in the book chapter ‘“Imitatio”, “intertextuality”, and Early Music’ in Citation and Authority in Medieval and Renaissance Music Culture, ed. S. Clark and E. E. Leach (Woodbridge, 2005). 

- Peter Schubert' videos on improvising canons are on YouTube: https://youtu.be/n01J393WpKk?si=dfXshQOGdNJXxlcq

- Check out DIAMM (the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music) for images of polyphonic medieval music manuscripts: https://www.diamm.ac.uk/

Regular episodes every month (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

REPEAT. ICYMI. Hope you’re all having a great summer. We didn’t get a chance to record another podcast episode recently and I don’t quite feel ready to call it quits on this season just yet, so we might release a couple of new episodes over the summer, you’ll just have to watch this space. In the meantime, I wanted to re-release this episode with the incredible Dr Sparky Booker, Assistant Professor in Medieval Irish History, Trinity College Dublin, in case anyone missed it.

Sparky enlightens us on the legal systems in force in 14th and 15th century Ireland, how to keep your land and why Elizabeth Le Veele married King of Leinster, Art McMurrough. She also discusses how the prevalence of intermarriage in the so-called 'four obedient shires' indicates that the English and Irish interacted far more peaceably and amicably than the often belligerent attitudes displayed toward the Irish in records from the colony would indicate, and that the attempts made by the Irish parliament to distance the English of Ireland from their Irish neighbours were largely unsuccessful.

Suggested reading:

Sparky Booker, Cultural Exchange and Identity in late medieval Ireland: the English and Irish of the Four Obedient Shires, Studies in Medieval Life and Thought Series (Cambridge, 2018)

Sparky Booker, ‘Women and legal history: the case of late medieval English Ireland and the challenges of studying ‘women’’, Irish Historical Studies, 46:170 (2022), pp 224-243

Sparky Booker, ‘Intermarriage in fifteenth-century Ireland: the English and Irish in the ‘four obedient shires’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 113c (2013), pp 219-250

Sparky Booker, ‘Widowhood and attainder in medieval Ireland: the case of Margaret Nugent’ in Deborah Youngs and Teresa Phipps (eds), Litigating women: gender and justice in Europe, c.1300-c.1800 (Abingdon, 2022), pp 81-98

Ellis, Stephen G. (1998). Ireland in the Age of the Tudors, 1447-1603: English Expansion and the End of Gaelic Rule (2nd ed.). Routledge

Regular episodes every month (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

This week we are back with part two of our mammoth session with Fr Conor McDonough OP, an exceptional Research Ireland funded PhD researcher in Classics, University of Galway. Conor tells us all about the new mendicant orders in 13th century Ireland: the Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites and Augustinians. Conor explains that these new orders were like 'networks of mass communication' and that friars are kind of like itinerant and urban monks. We hear tales of decline and reform, the Fourth Lateran Council, ethnic tensions, the encroaching black death, and attempts to establish an Irish university in the 1320s.

Suggested reading and resources:

Treasure Ireland Youtube series https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdPbRZbumpDdJjMBmh_wlGVdx_rQVH38O

- Ó Clabaigh, Colmán, ‘The Church, 1050–1460’, in Brendan Smith (ed.), The Cambridge History of Ireland. 1. 600–1550 (Cambridge, 2018), 355–384

- Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB, The Friars in Ireland, 1224-1540, Dublin: Four Courts, 2011.

- Yvonne McDermott, ‘Women as patrons and benefactors of the friars in medieval Connacht’, Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies, vol. 8 (2019), pp. 235-266.

- Edel Bhreathnach, ‘The mendicant orders and vernacular Irish learning in the late medieval period’, Irish Historical Studies, vol. 37, no. 147 (2011), pp. 357-375.

Regular episodes every month (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

Welcome back all! This month we are joined by Fr Conor McDonough OP, an exceptional Research Ireland funded PhD researcher in Classics, University of Galway. Conor elucidates the variety of religious life in the Middle Ages focussing on the new religious orders introduced as part of wider church reforms in the 11th and 12th centuries. This episode touches on a number of big themes such as the conflict between 'church and state', colonisation, language, ethnicity, patronage, and decline. What is the difference between a monk and a priest? Why were there two Cathedrals in Dublin? Why did the Cistercians in Ireland build a 'fortress against God'? Did the Irish prefer living in 'nests' rather than stone buildings? Conor answers all of these questions and much more. We learn all about the new international networks of the Cluniacs, Cistercians, Augustinians, Premonstratensians, the Rule of Benedict, drama at Mellifont, bishops as barons, the Anglo-Norman Conquest and the appeal of religious life.

Suggested reading and resources:

Treasure Ireland Youtube series https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdPbRZbumpDdJjMBmh_wlGVdx_rQVH38O

-Edel Bhreathnach, Monasticism in Ireland, AD 900-1250 (Dublin, 2024)

- Ó Clabaigh, Colmán, ‘The Church, 1050–1460’, in Brendan Smith (ed.), The Cambridge History of Ireland. 1. 600–1550 (Cambridge, 2018), 355–384

- Etchingham, Colmán, ‘Review Article: The “Reform” of the Irish Church in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’, Studia Hibernica, 37 (2011), 215–37

- Flanagan, Marie-Therese, The transformation of the Irish church in the twelfth century (Woodbridge, 2013)

- Martin Browne OSB & Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB (eds), The Irish Benedictines: A History, Dublin: Columba Press, 2005.

- Martin Browne OSB & Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB (eds), Households of God: The Regular Canons and Canonesses of St Augustine and of Prémontré in Medieval Ireland, Dublin: Four Courts, 2019.

- Martin Browne OSB, Tracy Collins, Bronagh Ann McShane, Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB (eds), Brides of Christ: Women and Monasticism in Medieval and Early Modern Ireland, Dublin: Four Courts, 2023.

- Tracy Collins, Female Monasticism in Medieval Ireland: An Archaeology, Cork: Cork University Press, 2021.

- Niamh Wycherley, ‘Eoin MacNeill and a “celtic” church in early medieval Ireland’, in Emer Purcell & Conor Mulvagh (eds), Eoin MacNeill; the pen and the sword (Cork, 2022), 40–52

- Athassel Priory https://heritageireland.ie/unguided-sites/athassel-augustinian-priory/

Regular episodes every month (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

Some extra time with our resident expert on all things Irish kingship Dr Seán Ó Hoireabhárd (Bergin Scholar, School of Celtic Studies, DIAS, & author of Medieval Irish Kings and the English Invasion). This episode accompanies the main episode on the life and career of the supposed last Irish king of all Ireland, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, aka Rory O'Connor. Here Seán tells us how King Ruaidrí's legacy was shaped by later commentators and nationalist propaganda.

Suggested reading:

Seán Ó Hoireabhárd, Medieval Irish Kings and the English Invasion. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2024.

---------- ‘Horse-Trading and Wife-Swapping: Politics, Marriage, and Selaidecht in Twelfth-Century Ireland’. Celtica 36 (2024): 87–115.

----------‘Derbforgaill: Twelfth-Century Abductee, Patron and Wife’. Irish Historical Studies 46 (2022): 1–24.

Regular episodes every month (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

In this month's episode we welcome back the learned Dr Seán Ó Hoireabhárd (Bergin Scholar, School of Celtic Studies, DIAS, & author of Medieval Irish Kings and the English Invasion) to elucidate the life and career of the supposed last Irish king of all Ireland, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, aka Rory O'Connor. Somehow in less than one hour Seán also manages to deftly explain complex topics such as the nature of Irish kingship, convoluted Irish marriage practices, Church reform, dynastic politics, the strategic position of Dublin, AND the English invasion of Ireland.

Suggested reading:

Seán Ó Hoireabhárd, Medieval Irish Kings and the English Invasion. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2024.

---------- ‘Horse-Trading and Wife-Swapping: Politics, Marriage, and Selaidecht in Twelfth-Century Ireland’. Celtica 36 (2024): 87–115.

----------‘Derbforgaill: Twelfth-Century Abductee, Patron and Wife’. Irish Historical Studies 46 (2022): 1–24.

Regular episodes every month (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

This week we are joined by the brilliant Dr Brigid Ehrmantraut, Associate Lecturer in Latin and in the History of the British Isles, c.1100-1500, University of St Andrews, author of Classical Myth in Medieval Ireland. We learn all about the immrama, medieval Irish voyage literature, and where medieval Irish authors found their inspiration. Dr Ehrmantraut takes us through the otherworldly adventures of Bran, Brendan and Máel Dúin, explains why Irish authors loved the Latin poetry of Vergil and Lucan, and demonstrates how many classical texts went on to have vibrant afterlives and inspired new authors and audiences during the Middle Ages.

Suggested reading:

- Clarke MJ, (ed.), Torrance I, (ed.), Poppe E, (ed.), Classical Antiquity and Medieval Ireland: An Anthology of Medieval Irish Texts and Interpretations (London, 2024)

Find it Open Access here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/classical-antiquity-and-medieval-ireland-9781350333277/

- Ehrmantraut, Brigid, 'Vergil, voyage tales, and medieval Irish classicism revisited', Peritia 36 (2026) 191–217.

-Ehrmantraut, Brigid, Classical myth in medieval Ireland (Cambridge, 2025)

Regular episodes every month (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

Happy St Patrick's Festival one and all! Did you know that St Patrick's writings are unique as the only surviving Latin narrative texts of his age to have been composed anywhere outside of Roman imperial territory? This month we bring you a glimpse into the fascinating world of Royal Irish Academy lexicographer Dr Anthony Harvey. It is often thought that linguistics has to be very technical and complicated (it doesn’t), as well as boring (it needn’t be). Dr Harvey explains how linguistics can help the historian and reveals how the Latin language evolved in medieval Ireland. We discuss Flann O'Brien, 'disunderstanding', playing with words, Virgilius Maro Grammaticus, West Brit syndrome and much more.

Please check out out the Royal Irish Academy's confessio.ie website — your one stop shop for all things St Patrick!

Suggested resources:

Anthony Harvey, How Linguistics can help the historian (Dublin, 2021): https://shop.ria.ie/products/how-linguistics-can-help-the-historian

Anthony Harvey, "Frankenstein in the Scriptorium: Bringing Latin to Life in Early Medieval Ireland”, in Code-Switching in Medieval Ireland and England, ed. M. Ó Flaithearta (Bremen, 2018), 105–19

The Dictionary of Medieval Latin from Celtic Sources: https://journals.eeecs.qub.ac.uk/DMLCS/

Regular episodes every month (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

This week Prof. Ruairí Ó hUiginn (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies) gives us a masterclass on the Ulster Cycle and all the elements and stories that are part of it, including its most famous tale, Táin Bó Cuailgne (the Cattle Raid of Cooley). Known for its dramatic and complicated protagonists Fergus mac Roich, Cú Chulainn and Queen Medb, Prof. Ó hUiginn explains how this literature is not a monolith and has been added to and expanded for many centuries. He describes how many of these stories may have originally been cautionary tales condemning warfare (and women!) and that they can be valuable sources for the medieval historian.

Suggested reading:

Ó hUiginn, Ruairí, Marriage, Law and Tochmarc Emire (Cambridge, 2013)

Toner, G., ‘The Ulster Cycle: Historiography or fiction?’, Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies (2000), 1–20

Allen, N. J., 'Cú Chulainn's women and some Indo-European comparisons', Emania 18, 57–64

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

In addition to our regular episode (on St Brigid abroad with Prof. Jean-Michel Picard) we have a little extra treat! Starring Prof. David Stifter performing some gorgeous early Irish poetry praising St Brigit. Interpolated with the English translations recited by Dr Niamh Wycherley. Big thanks to Tiago Veloso Silva for editing and co-writing the intro.

You can find our regular full length episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Bl4kPloLBBPIZyteEjsBY?si=epXhUJXlRomyBe-xAItDyw

Suggested reading:

'How Brigit continues to inspire poets, writers and artists' https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/research/spotlight-research/how-brigit-continues-inspire-poets-writers-and-artists

The poetry has been edited and translated by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan (eds), Thesaurus palaeohibernicus, a collection of Old-Irish glosses, scholia, prose, and verse, ii (Cambridge, 1903), pp 325-349: https://archive.org/details/thesauruspalaeoh02stokuoft/page/324/mode/2up

Bethu Brigte edited and translated by Donncha Ó hAodha (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1978) https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T201002/

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)

Email: [email protected]

Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music