The Medieval Irish History Podcast

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

Happy St Brigit's day! This year's celebration of Ireland's most beloved female icon comes a bit earlier to the podcast, but keep tuned as we have prepared a surprise for you to be published this weekend!
This week we are joined by the amazing linguist and historian Jean-Michel Picard, Professor Emeritus at University College Dublin, whose work has inspired generations of scholars studying medieval Ireland and Irish saints. In this episode, Prof. Picard tells us all about the transmission of the cult of St Brigit to the Continent, the various sources containing a wealth of information about the saint. Prof. Picard also shares the difficulties of tracking down manuscripts before the internet and offers us a glimpse of medieval Irish scholarship in Ireland in the 1980s.

Suggested Readings:
Connolly, Sean, and J.-M. Picard. 'Cogitosus’s ‘Life of St Brigit’ Content and Value', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland , 117 (1987), pp 5-27. Freely available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/25508920.
Picard, J.M. Aquitaine and Ireland in the Middle Ages (Dublin, 1995).
Picard, J.-M. 'In platea monasterii: the layout of ecclesiastical settlements in early medieval Ireland (7th-9th C.)', in Flavia De Rubeis & Federico Marazzi (eds). Monasteri in Europa occidentale (secoli VIII-XI): topografia e strutture (Rome, 2008), pp.67-82.
Picard, J.-M. 'Omnes sancti chori Hiberniae sanctorum orate pro nobis: Manuscript Evidence for the Cult of Irish Saints in Medieval Europe', in Ann Buckley Music, Liturgy, and the Veneration of Saints of the Medieval Irish Church in a European Context (2017), pp. 67-77.

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

On the podcast this week we explore Niamh's favourite primary source material: hagiography! We are joined by the multilingual Dr Sarah Waidler, of Glucksman Ireland House, NYU, expert in medieval Celtic languages including Irish and Welsh. Sarah guides us through these fascinating religious texts which were arguably the most popular literary genre in the 'European' Middle Ages and how Irish hagiography fits into this wider community. From warring saints to moving house miracles we learn what these texts can tell us about medieval people and society.
Suggested reading:
James Palmer,  Early Medieval Hagiography (Amsterdam University Press, 2018).
S. Waidler (ed.), Defining the Boundaries of Hagiography in the Celtic World and Beyond: Textual Sources Outside Saints’ Lives and Martyrologies (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, forthcoming 2025)
S. Waidler, ‘Sanctity and Intertextuality in Medieval Munster: The Unusual Life of Findchú of Brí Gobann’, Peritia 30 (2019), pp. 215–34

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