Sir,—In his review in the last issue of HI (Spring 1996) of Colony and Frontier in Medieval Ireland Adrian Empey quotes what purports to be a sentence from my paper published therein: ‘For some reason or other, never satisfactorily explained, de Courcy’s army passed through Louth without so much as lopping off a head’ and … Read more
In their preface to this handsome volume the joint editors acknowledge that while it has been their aim to give some account of the chief battles of Ireland’s history their principal concern is with the political and social background. Although at first sight this might appear to belie the title of the book, their approach … Read more
This collection of essays in honour of Professor J.F. Lydon, recently retired Lecky Professor of Modern History at Trinity College, is a worthy tribute to a scholar who has contributed so much to our present understanding of the history of the Anglo-Norman colony, and who has inspired a new generation of historians, many of them … Read more
Sir, —I feel bound to respond to Dr Katherine Simms’ review of my book,Ulster and the Isles in the fifteenth century, in your Autumn 2004issue. There are, as Dr Simms points out, a number of errors in thebook. These are largely in its index, where a number of peripheralindividuals are conflated, but on occasion they … Read more
‘Clontarf was too important to be left to the historians, so passed into the legend-maker’s hand’ (Gwyn Jones, A history of the Vikings [London, 1973]). ‘The men of Ireland will suffer a grief that will never grow old in the minds of men’ (Valkyries’ prophecy, Njál’s saga, §157, tr. Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson [Harmondsworth, … Read more