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