The Medieval Irish History Podcast

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: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
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: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
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: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
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: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
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: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com
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