The Medieval Irish History Podcast

• The Viking Paradigm with Prof. Alex Woolf

  This week we welcome back Prof. Alex Woolf (University of St. Andrews) to the podcast to question whether ‘the Vikings’ is a useful concept that helps us understand history. We explore why certain people left Scandinavia in the late 8th century and what they were called in the various places they raided and eventually settled. Alex warns us against the telescoping of medieval history and argues for more nuance and specificity when dealing with the Scandinavian diaspora in so-called 'Viking Age Ireland'. He explains that the variety of activities by people we refer to as 'vikings' across the centuries in places like Ireland, England, Scotland and Francia cannot be reduced to one simple narrative.Suggested reading:Alex Woolf, 'The Viking Paradigm in Early Medieval History' Early Medieval England and its Neighbours. 2025;51:e2. doi:10.1017/ean.2024.3Colmán Etchingham, Vikings in Early Medieval Ireland: Church-Raiding, Politics and Kingship (Boydell Press, 2025)Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)Email: [email protected]: Tiago Veloso SilvaSupported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.Views expressed are the speakers' own.Logo design: Matheus de Paula CostaMusic: Lexin_Music

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• Irish national identity in the early Middle Ages? with Dr Patrick Wadden

  Who were the Scotti? The Féni? The Gaels? We were delighted to get Dr Patrick Wadden, from DCU and Belmont Abbey College, NC, USA on the podcast this week to explore the evidence for the existence of the Irish nation as a concept in the early medieval period. Dr Wadden guides us through a variety of texts, in both Latin and the vernacular, which depict the people of Ireland as a community of birth, language, law, religion and, sometimes, politics, from Columbanus, Adomnán and Auraicept na n-Éces the whole way through to Lebor gabála Érenn and the Sex Aetates Mundi. We discuss the role of the Irish language in expressions of Irish identity in the Middle Ages and Wadden reminds us to note the difference between modern scholars identifying something as being key to medieval identity and people at the time seeing it as significant.Suggested reading:Patrick Wadden, 'Church, Apostle and People in early Ireland', Medieval Worlds 5 (2017), pp. 143–169 Kane, Brendan, and Patrick Wadden, eds, An Eoraip: Gaelic Ireland in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Leiden, 2025)Wadden, P., ‘Theories of National Identity in Early Medieval Ireland’ https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:49c662b9-4e14-41b3-972e-ed8475f324c5Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)Email: [email protected]: Tiago Veloso SilvaSupported by the Arts & Humanities Institute, Maynooth University, the Dept of Early Irish, & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.Views expressed are the speakers' own.Logo design: Matheus de Paula CostaMusic: Lexin_Music

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• Spooky Samhain with Dr Hannah Mac Auliffe

  "Great was the darkness of that night and its horror, and demons would appear on that night always."Oíche shamhna shona daoibh go léir! Happy Hallowe'en! To accompany you on any trick or treating or early morning/late night wakenings this weekend we bring you our spooky Samhain special! Dr Hannah Mac Auliffe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Maynooth University, explains how the festival of Samhain appears in medieval Irish literature as a time for feasting and merriment, with the High King’s Feast of Tara taking place on Halloween in several medieval stories. And just as we gather together and tell stories of demons and ghouls each October 31st, so too did the people of medieval Ireland. We hear of everything from zombies, threefold deaths and beheadings to werewolves, witches and kidnappings by the fairy armies of the sídhe. Be careful out there!Recommended reading:Hannah Mac Auliffe, 'Great was the darkness': Spooky stories from medieval Ireland, RTÉ Brainstorm: https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2023/1023/1412430-ghost-stories-medieval-ireland-folklore-halloween-samhain/Lára Ní Mhaoláin, 'Preserving Samhain - Halloween in the Schools’ Collection of Irish folklore': https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/research/spotlight-research/preserving-samhain-halloween-schools-collection-irish-folkloreElizabeth Boyle, 'How authors in medieval Ireland made Samhain a good read': https://blogafragments.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/how-authors-in-medieval-ireland-made-samhain-a-good-read/Primary sources mentioned (thanks Hannah for the references!):ECHTRA CORMAIC: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T302000.htmlStokes, Whitley (ed. and tr.), ‘The Irish ordeals, Cormac's adventure in the Land of Promise, and the decision as to Cormac's sword’ in Windisch, Ernst, and Whitley Stokes (eds), Irische Texte mit Wörterbuch, vol. 3:1 (1891) pp 183-221.TOCHMARC EMIRE: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T301021.htmlMeyer, Kuno (ed. and tr.), ‘The Wooing of Emer’, Archaeological Review 1 (1888), pp 68-75; 150-155; 231-235; 298-07.ECHTRA NERAI: https://www.ucc.ie/en/media/academic/seanmeanghaeilge/cdi/texts/Meyer-Echtra-Nerai.pdfMeyer, Kuno (ed. and tr.), 'Echtra Nerai (The Adventures of Nera)', Revue Celtique 10 (1889), pp 212-228.MACGNÍMARTHA FIND: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T303023/index.htmlMeyer, Kuno (ed. and tr.), ‘Macgnimartha Find’, Ériu 1 (1901), pp 180-190.TOGAIL BRUIDNE DÁ DERGA: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T301017A/Stokes, Whitley (ed. and tr.), ‘The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel’, Revue Celtique 22 (1901), pp 9-61, 165-215, 282-329, 390-437.METRICAL DINDSHENCHAS: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T106500D/Gwynn, Edward (ed. and tr.), The Metrical Dindshenchas, Volume 4; Second reprint (Dublin, 1991) (first published 1906) (reprinted 1941).Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)Email: [email protected]: Tiago Veloso SilvaSupported by Maynooth University, the Dept of Early Irish, the Dept of Music, the Dept of History, & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.Views expressed are the speakers' own.Logo design: Matheus de Paula CostaMusic by: Sascha Ende

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• Medieval Medicine with Prof. Deborah Hayden

  This week Prof. Deborah Hayden, our Head here in the Dept. of Early Irish, Maynooth University, explains what it was like both to go the, or become a, doctor in medieval Ireland! Taking us through a chronological development from the early medico-legal texts through the surge in scientific writing in the later Middle Ages she explains everything from how to cure a broken heart and how much to pay for surgery to where medical knowledge came from and how much more we have to learn from the understudied corpus of Irish medical manuscripts.Further resources can be found here: https://leigheas.maynoothuniversity.ie/the-first-physicians-of-ireland/https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2019/1114/1010637-what-was-it-like-to-go-to-the-doctor-in-medieval-ireland/Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)Email: [email protected]: Tiago Veloso SilvaSupported by Maynooth University, the Dept of Early Irish, the Dept of Music, the Dept of History, & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.Views expressed are the speakers' own.Logo design: Matheus de Paula CostaMusic: Lexin_Music

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• Poets and Poetry with Dr Elizabeth Boyle

  Welcome back for season three! Hope you missed us as much as we missed recording our chats on all things medieval Ireland! Today we have Dr Elizabeth Boyle back for the first episode of the new season (as is becoming tradition) to learn about poets and poetry. We discuss everything from Poet-President Michael D. Higgins, the power of satire, constrained poetical forms, and the high status of poets to the popularity of the blackbird in Irish poetry (!), Seámus Heaney, whether medieval Irish poetry rhymed, how to become a poet and much more!Suggested reading: – Elizabeth Boyle, Fierce Appetites (Dublin and London, 2022)– Liam Breatnach, "Satire, praise and the Early Irish poet", Ériu 56, no. 1 (2006), 63-84– Liam Breatnach, Uraicecht na Ríar: The Poetic Grades in Early Irish Law, Early Irish Law Series II (Dublin, 1987)– Robin Chapman Stacey, Dark Speech: The Performance of Law in Early Ireland (Philadelphia, 2007), pp. 95–134 – https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0401/1504619-irish-medieval-poet-conchobhar-ruadh-mac-con-midhe-satire-exile/Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)Email: [email protected]: Tiago Veloso SilvaSupported by Maynooth University, the Dept of Early Irish, the Dept of Music, the Dept of History, & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.Views expressed are the speakers' own.Logo design: Matheus de Paula CostaMusic: Lexin_Music

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