Sir,—Robin Frame in his interview (HI 20.3, May/June 2012) on the history of medieval Ireland rightly emphasises the value of approaching the subject from outside the narrow and insular perspective that has often been the practice in the past. He decries the ‘tendency of Irish historians to address themselves to their own kind’. He is … Read more
The first edition of the Atlas of the Irish rural landscape (1997) was immediately hailed as a classic. For its time it was a ground-breaking publication, featuring a previously unsurpassed array of maps, aerial photographs and detailed explanatory text combining broad overviews of Irish rural settlement with detailed treatments of individual regions. Perhaps unavoidably, the … Read more
The existence of the canonical ‘32 counties of Ireland’ (26 in the Republic and six in the North) is taken for granted by most of us and would appear to be easily verified by glancing at a map. Likewise, despite modernisation, globalisation and large-scale immigration, counties continue to command passionate loyalties and on both sides … Read more
In Dublin there were six liberties, all of which were originally under ecclesiastical control (and the first three of which give their name to the modern district in the city’s south side). St Sepulchre, ruled by the archbishops of Dublin, was created before 1199 and consisted of three parishes in the city and extensive lands … Read more
In the transition from paganism to Christianity, Hy Brasil took on another meaning. The Celtic ideal of the island of the Otherworld—a place with all good things, a land of eternal youth, an environment of dreams and fantasies—is incorporated into the concept of an earthly paradise. It was in search of this promised land that … Read more