In 1210 King John ordered that English Common Law was henceforth to be the law of the Norman lordship of Ireland. The Common Law was a centralised system of justice with civil and criminal divisions, and trial by jury. The Irish, who were deemed ‘rebels’, used the Brehon Law instead until the seventeenth century. Under … Read more
The basic fare was two properly baked loaves of bread daily. Other foods were prescribed at different times of year but varied according to the rank of the injured person. Nobles were to have salt-meat daily from New Year’s Eve to the beginning of Lent, garden herbs only during Lent, salt-meat twice a week from … Read more
In this book—number 4 in the Studia Traditionis Theologiae: Explorations in Early and Medieval Theology series edited by Thomas O’Loughlin—David Jenkins explores the layout of religious settlements in Ireland (from the sixth to the ninth century AD), arguing that a discernible pattern exists consisting of (a) an exterior enclosure, (b) tripartite zoning of the enclosed … Read more
The National Museum of Ireland in Kildare Street could be viewed as a collection of smaller themed museums rather than one large one, as the permanent collections on various aspects of Irish history are self-contained. It can be a rewarding experience to concentrate on just one of these instead of attempting to take in the … Read more
‘I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes’, wrote the American poet Carl Sandberg. For Irish historians this line rings true quite literally. The explosion that ripped through the Public Record Office of Ireland at the Four Courts, Dublin, on 30 June 1922 destroyed much of Ireland’s documentary heritage dating back to the … Read more