The Medieval Irish History Podcast

Happy New Year! New episode out now. Dr Sparky Booker @tcddublin shares some wonderful, instructive, insights into how we can explore gender, class, ethnicity & community through an exam of individual legal cases in a fascinating period of Irish history. open.spotify.com/episode/38AqgF…

Presenting recent graduate of @MaynoothHist & winner of @NUIMerrionSq Mansion House prize, Emily Little! Women exercising influence/power were not rare in history — we chat about two such women in the 16th century, Gráinne Ní Mháille & Joan Fitzgerald. open.spotify.com/episode/4zmH8f…

Did an Irish 'nation' ever exist? Who were the Scotti? The Féni? The Gaels? Dr Patrick Wadden, DCU & Belmont Abbey College, provides a masterclass on the written sources and how Irish authors conceptualised Irishness in the early Middle Ages. @MaynoothUni open.spotify.com/episode/40rPBn…

Oíche Shamhna shona daoibh! Our ethereal expert @HMacAuliffe @MaynoothUni guides us through the darkness of #samhain, a time for feasting, mischief & terror in Irish literature, when the veil between worlds is thin, & ghastly ghouls abound! #Halloween open.spotify.com/episode/6gQ6l0…

New episode out now! open.spotify.com/episode/34oG5y…

Back for a 3rd series! open.spotify.com/episode/1DTUBd…

Last ep. of season 2 out now! We chat to the erudite @FarrellPereira re the Penitentials, some of the earliest surviving texts from the so-called 'Insular' world. Thanks @EarlyIrishMU @IrishResearch & guests & listeners! Back in Sept, have a lovely summer. open.spotify.com/episode/3I9T5x…

Nearing the end of season 2 & we have hit over 100K listens on the podcast 🥂. Thanks to all of our guests for sharing their time & expertise! Thoroughly enjoyed talking medieval Ireland over the last 38 episodes @MaynoothUni @EarlyIrishMU @IrishResearch open.spotify.com/show/1Gq9yIxfk…

The much anticipated, incredible, 'Words on the Wave' exhibition opens in @NMIreland today! FREE TO ALL. Can't make it? Listen to Matt Seaver & Dr Diarmuid Ó Riain on what makes it so special & about Irish connections w/Switzerland going back 1,400 years. open.spotify.com/episode/3o3xh5…

New ep w/Royal Irish Academy Librarian Barbara McCormack about @RIAdawson's collection incl. many of Ireland's oldest manuscripts e.g. the Cathach, the Stowe Missal, Leabhar Breac & The Book of the Dun Cow. @Library_RIA is FREE & runs brill public events. open.spotify.com/episode/28PqxC…

@PaulIWelch @TowsonU Thanks for listening!

@EarlyIrishPod @TowsonU Really enjoyed the episode, thanks! It was great to be able to have a look at all the castles you mentioned, and the other structures, like ringworks, which I’d not come across before.

ICYMI! A chatty overview/intro to Irish castles from the brilliant historian/archaeologist Dr Victoria McAlister @TowsonU. Bar from being cool to look at/explore we discuss how new technology can reveal there is much more to castles than meets the eye. open.spotify.com/episode/5Up09J…

Why Sitric Silkenbeard is the greatest Dubliner of all time. He may be seen as one of the baddies of Irish history thanks to the Battle of Clontarf, but Silkenbeard built Dublin into a cosmopolitan city, writes @NiamhWycherley @MaynoothUni @Researchirel rte.ie/brainstorm/202…

Have you ever wondered how a medieval scholar applied for grants (of horses)? This week Dr @CGSchweizer gives all the deets about the political and academic life of Dicuil and other Irish scholars at the Carolingian courts in our podcast! open.spotify.com/episode/3bLL7x…

In this week's episode we are very grateful to Dr Janel Fontaine for her patience w/the technical difficulties we experienced & for chatting with us about how best to interpret the huge amount of evidence for slavery in medieval Ireland. open.spotify.com/episode/048YpT…

☘️New ep: Dr Elizabeth Dawson (Carlow College) expertly guides us through the stories celebrating St Patrick. Come for the snakes/shamrocks/parades but stay for the articulation of centuries old literary/historical/community development! #StPatricksDay2025 open.spotify.com/episode/4TK3Kg…

This week we bring you our very own @TiagoOVSilva @EarlyIrishMU! On ‘soft power’, what is patronage, the #nuntastic Agnes, ‘An Caillech Mór’ (d.1196), St Mary’s monastery, Clonard, & the study of medieval Ireland. Tiago's work is funded by @Researchirel open.spotify.com/episode/1eEqvk…

Finally going to be interviewing @TiagoOVSilva for the podcast! On the role of medieval women as political & ecclesiastical patrons, incl. Agnes of Clonard (d.1196), Sárnat of Kildare (fl. 7th century), & reflections on the study of medieval Irish history. Send us your questions!

@EarlyIrishMU @Researchirel That link doesn't work whoops! Here is the correct one my.corehr.com/pls/nuimrecrui…

Job alert!! Come work with us in @EarlyIrishMU! 18 month postdoctoral researcher position on our @Researchirel Pathway project 'Power and patronage in medieval Ireland: Clonard from the sixth to twelfth centuries'. my.corehr.com/pls/nuimrecrui…