Apologies for the poor sound quality in this episode!

This week Dr Janel Fontaine (Treasure Trove Officer, National Museums Scotland) talks us through some of the evidence for slavery in medieval Ireland. From the accounts of St Patrick in the 5th century to Gerald of Wales in the 12th century she explains how slavery was built into the social and economic fabric of Irish society.

Suggested reading:

- Janel Fontaine, Slave Trading in Early Medieval Europe (Manchester, 2025)

- Fergus Kelly, Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin, 1988)

- Caitlin Ellis, ‘Perceptions of the Slave Trade in Britain and Ireland: “Celtic” and “Viking” Stereotypes’, Quaestio Insularis 19 (2018), 127–57

- Paul Holm, “The slave trade of Dublin, ninth to twelfth centuries”, Peritia 5 (1986), 317–345

- David Wyatt, Slaves and Warriors in Medieval Britain and Ireland, 800-1200 (Brill, Leiden, 2009)

- Charlene Eska, “Women and slavery in the early Irish laws”, Studia Celtica Fennica 8 (2011), 29–39

-Alice Rio, Slavery After Rome, 500-1100 (Oxford, 2017)

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)

Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Dept of Music, Dept of History, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/Irish Research Council).

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

It's time for our annual discussion of the man responsible for our national holiday in Ireland, Fáilte Ireland's global greening campaign and J. D. Vance wearing shamrock socks in the White House! Dr Elizabeth Dawson (Carlow College) is the perfect expert guide through over 14 centuries of stories celebrating St Patrick. She explains how Patrick became our patron saint, how traditions around Patrick evolved, why the 3 day weekend actually goes the whole way back to the 8th century, and from where snakes, parades and green beer come.

For those looking for the historical individual Patrick, have a listen to our episode with the excellent Terry O'Hagan from last year: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1xYXTvNMKUbOwfG9Cf061N?si=-_3QBbkGQnOx9YofGTKXVQ

Suggested reading:

Dawson, Elizabeth, Lives and Afterlives: The Hiberno-Latin Patrician Tradition, 650–1100 Studia Traditionis Theologiae, 55 (Turnhout, 2023)

Dawson, Elizabeth, https://www.confessio.ie/more/article_dawson#

Wycherley, Niamh, 'Meet St Patrick's Spin Doctor,' https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2024/0314/1036430-meet-st-patricks-spin-doctor/

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)

Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/Irish Research Council).

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music

Due to popular demand our podcast producer Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva has finally come on to the other side of the mic as one of our expert guests! We chat ‘soft power’, definitions of patronage, Agnes Ní Máelsechlainn ‘An Caillech Mór’ (d.1196), St Mary’s Arrouaisian monastery, Clonard, & reflections on the study of medieval Irish history. Tiago is over half way through his PhD research in the Department of Early Irish, Maynooth University, under the supervision of Dr Wycherley, working on the Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland Pathway project ‘Power and patronage in medieval Ireland: Clonard from the sixth to twelfth centuries’.

Tiago’s research aims to understand how women exercised power and authority in medieval Ireland by operating socio-cultural and political networks of patronage. This investigation is framed around noblewomen and religious women of the 12th century due to its intense and transformative character, but it allows certain chronological flexibility in order to understand the development of the concept and exercise of female power. To fill this epistemological lacuna, he employs an interdisciplinary approach anchored in a wide array of sources such as the corpus of secular genealogies, the Banshenchas and annalistic evidence.

Suggested reading:

• Tiago Veloso Silva, The other Brigids: meet the forgotten mighty women of Medieval Ireland, https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0130/1493745-medieval-ireland-kildare-women-st-brigid-darlugdach-gnathnat-sebdann-muireann-and-coblaith-sarnat/

• Tracy Collins, Female Monasticism in Medieval Ireland: An Archaeology (Cork, 2021)

• Burke, Peter. History and social theory (Cambridge, 2005)

• Hall, Dianne. Women and the Church in Medieval Ireland (Dublin, 2008)

Regular episodes every two weeks (on a Friday)

Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com

X (formerly Twitter): @EarlyIrishPod

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University, & Taighde Éireann (formerly Science Foundation Ireland/Irish Research Council).

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music