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
