The Medieval Irish History Podcast

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