The first SAMS talk of this semester takes place tomorrow (Wednesday) in ORB 2.02 at 6pm.

Comhghairdeachas le Gormfhlaith Ní Shíocháin Ní Bheoláin  a bhuaigh Scoláireacht Chiste Teach an Ardmhéara sa Ghaeilge

Bronnadh BA (Ceol agus Gaeilge) uirthi an samhradh so; tá MA sa tSean agus sa Mheán-Ghaeilge ar siúl aici fé láthair.

Congratulations to our first-year students Evan Daly and Ellen O'Connor, who are the 2022/23 recipients of the Celtic Civilisation Kavanagh Entrance Scholarships.

The scholarships were awarded officially at a ceremony presided over by the UCC President Prof John O’Halloran in January 2023.

For more information on the Kavanagh Entrance Scholarships, see Kavanagh Celtic Civilisation Entrance Scholarship | University College Cork (ucc.ie)

UCC Entrance Scholarship Awards Ceremony | University College Cork

Launch of Volumes 7 and 8 of Cork Studies in Celtic Literatures on Thursday next, 26 January, at 6.15 p.m.  in the Seomra Caidrimh, UCC.

Dr Mikael Males, University of Oslo

A (re)assessment of Irish influences in Scandinavia before c. AD 1000

17:00-18:00, 16 November, ORB 2.55

Project: Ultonia - Cultural Dynamics in medieval Ulster: a shared inheritance

18 Months, Fixed-Term, Whole-time Post

It is just a few days until one of the most important times in the Irish traditional year: Samhain, or 1 November and the night preceding it. That night is of course also the night of Hallowe’en; and Samhain too has had potent supernatural associations for as far back as our records extend. (See for instance “Secrets at Samhain”, posted on News / Events this time last year.) There are many strange things about Samhain; one is its name, which is derived from sam-, the Celtic root meaning “summer” (cf. Welsh haf, English “summer”). How can this be so, seeing that Samhain marks the traditional beginning of winter?

Na Ranna Gaeilge, COC ~ Cumann na Scríbheann nGaedhilge

Annual UCC/ITS Seminar

Saturday, 5 November, 2022

West Wing 6, Main Quadrangle, University College Cork

The subject of this year’s event will be

Oidheadh Chloinne hUisneach

‘The Violent Death of the Children of Uisneach’, ed. Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith

Irish Texts Society Main Series, volume 56 (1992)

Dr James Chetwood, IRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Digital Humanities, University College Cork

The Medieval Transformation of English Personal Naming

Wednesday 19 October, 5.00-6:00pm - ORB 2.55

Irish Sagas Online as a Teaching Resource: The Case of Tochmarc Emire ‘The Wooing of Emer’   
CACSSS Seminar Room, G27, Wednesday 22 June, 2.00–5.30

This seminar will be streamed live on MS Teams via the following link: ISO: Online Seminar

The Department of Early and Medieval Irish, University College Cork is delighted to announce a one-day seminar on the Cycles of the Kings which will take place live in the CACSSS Seminar Room, O'Rahilly Building, UCC on Friday 8 April beginning at 10.00a.m.

This seminar will be streamed live on MS Teams via the following link: Cycles of the Kings Seminar

Buy from the UCC Shop €15.00

This project led by Dr Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh, UCC and Dr Nioclás Mac Cathmhaoil, UU Magee, was inspired by the Educational Dialogue strand of the Shared Island Initiative which calls on educators North and South to learn from each other and jointly reflect on the future of education on the island.

In the Saint Patrick’s Day season, we offer a sampling of some of the themes that will be explored in the forthcoming online MA in Irish Mythology and Folklore, offered by the Department of Early and Medieval Irish and by the Department of Folklore and Ethnology beginning in September 2022.

https://www.ucc.ie/en/maimf/ 

The third talk in the School of Irish Learning, UCC, Spring Seminar Series, 2022, will take place on Thursday, 7th April at 5pm in West Wing 5. 

Emmet Taylor, a Ph.D. student of the Department of Early and Medieval Irish, will deliver a paper entitled 'Products of their Times: the Historic Context of the Medieval Irish Heroic Bands'.

This seminar, conducted through English, will take place in WW 5. It will also be live-streamed on MS Teams via the following link: SIL Seminar Series

Wednesday 16 February, 5:15pm

Dr Michael J. Kelly

'Postulating a Visigothic 'Human Nature'

ORB 123

Dé Máirt, 1 Feabhra, ar 6.00 i.n.

Beidh Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh ag tabhairt cainte dar teideal ‘Contextualising Saltair na Rann within the tradition of biblical paraphrase’ mar chuid de shraith sheimineár ar líne atá a reáchtáil ag Roinn na Gaeilge, NUIG, féach: http://www.nuigalway.ie/gaeilge/poetsandpoetry/

Teideal agus Achoimre - Contextualising Saltair na Rann

Brigit is unquestionably the most important sacred female figure in the traditions of Ireland and Scotland; but all the same there is uncertainty as to who, or indeed what, she was. On the one hand, abundant sources going back at least as far as the seventh century speak of a holy woman who died in 524, founder of the great church of Kildare which at one time claimed supremacy over all other churches in Ireland. But other texts speak of a goddess Brigit, presiding over poetry, metalworking and healing; and Brigit’s name is directly related to that of a British goddess, whom the Romans called Brigantia.

The literature of medieval Ireland, like other medieval literatures, is full of references to the mystery of the Incarnation, and to the paradoxical image that expresses it: the Ultimate Reality, infinitely vaster than the universe, appearing as a helpless infant in the squalor of a stable. Especially striking is the evocation in the Old Irish cosmological treatise The Ever-New Tongue:

‘What thing could be more wondrous than the Child to be asleep in the arms of the Virgin, and yet a trembling upon creation and the angels? He has closed his fist around the seven heavens and the earth and hell and the many surrounding seas. The Child asleep in the arms of the Virgin, and yet a trembling upon the angels, and the heavens, and the lands with their inhabitants, and the whales in the seas, and upon the dwellers in hell—for fear of his power, and in hopes of deliverance from vexing him.’ (The Ever-New Tongue: The Text in the Book of Lismore, trans. J. Carey, Brepols 2018, p. 150)

Buy from the UCC Shop €12.00

Beidh an tríú caint i Sraith Seimineár an Fhómhair, Scoil Léann na Gaeilge, ar siúl Déardaoin, 2 Nollaig, ar a 5:00 i.n. Tabharfaidh an Dr Seán Ua Súilleabháin, léachtóir i Roinn na Nua-Ghaeilge, páipéar ar: ‘Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire: Téacs, Traidisiún agus Aistriúchán’.

Is as Gaeilge a bheidh an chaint seo agus tabharfar í ar an gcampas in WW_5. Tá fáilte roimh chách ach teachtaireacht a sheoladh go tomas.omurchu@ucc.ie. Beidh teacht ar an gcaint trí MS Teams, leis, ag an nasc so a leanas: SIL Seminar Series

Congratulations to Dr Tomás Mac Conmara of the Cork Folklore Project who discussed his recent book The Scariff Martyrs: War, Murder and Memory in East Clare with Dr Myles Dungan on The History Show on Sunday 21 November.  It was a riveting piece of radio detailing a terrible incident which happened on the bridge of Killaloe in 1920 when four men were shot by British Forces, who claimed they had attempted to escape custody. Locals insisted they were murdered. Listen back to the interview.

Beidh Comhdháil Éigse Cholm Cille na bliana seo ar 19-20 Samhain.

Labhróidh Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh ar ‘Colm Cille: Tuartha, Tairngreachtaí agus Fáistine Fhileata’ ar an Satharn, 20ú lá mí na Samhna, ar 4.45 i.n. agus is as Gaeilge a thabharfar an chaint.

Teideal agus Achoimre

Department of Early and Medieval Irish

Research Seminar 

Anne Connon, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, University College Cork 

Master Class on the Irish Genealogies 

Wednesday 17 November: 3pm 

Streamed live via MS Teams at this link: 

Join Anne Connon - Master Class (Microsoft Teams Meeting) 

  All are welcome to attend

Transition Year Programme in the Arts and Humanities

Programme dates: 28 February – 4 March, 2022

Subject to Public Health Guidelines

Beidh an tarna léacht i Sraith Seimineár an Fhómhair, Scoil Léann na Gaeilge, ar siúl Déardaoin, 18 Samhain, ar a 5 i.n. Sa seimineár seo, labhróidh an tUas. Cormac Ó hAodha, mac léinn PhD de chuid Roinn an Bhéaloidis, ar an téama ‘Bailiú amhrán i Múscraí le 125 bliain anuas’.

Is as Gaeilge a thabharfar an chaint seo, ar an gcampas in WW_5. Fáilte roimh chách, ach nóta a chur go c.ogealbhain@ucc.ie. Beidh teacht ar an gcaint trí MS Teams, leis, ag an nasc seo a leanas: SIL Seminar Series

Anybody interested in Irish legend will know that Samain, the night before the first of November, is a time when the natural and supernatural dimensions of existence come particularly close together: a time when mortals can visit the Otherworld, and when the inhabitants of the Otherworld can visit us – often in dangerous ways.

Buy from the UCC Shop €12.00

The series will begin on Thursday, 21 October at 5pm with a special event to celebrate the recent return to Cork of the 15th-century Irish manuscript known now as the Book of Lismore.

Na Ranna Gaeilge, COC ~ Cumann na Scríbheann nGaedhilge
Annual UCC/ITS Seminar
Saturday, 6 November, 2021
West Wing 6, Main Quadrangle, University College Cork

The subject of this event will be Gabháltais Shearluis Mhóir, edited by Douglas Hyde, Irish Texts Society Main Series vol. 19 (1919).
The seminar will also be broadcast through Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88154947438

The series will begin on Thursday, 21 October at 5pm. The first seminar will be conducted in English; the following two will be conducted in Irish.

All three events will take place via MS Teams). Everyone is welcome to attend.

The first seminar in the series will comprise a special event to celebrate the recent return to Cork of the 15th-century Irish manuscript known now as the Book of Lismore.

Scél lem dúib: Gerard Murphy's Early Irish Lyrics Revisited.

A Symposium to Celebrate the 65th Anniversary of the Publication of the Anthology.

The event will take place Friday-Saturday, 29-30 October.  

[Friday from 12.15pm to 6pm and Saturday from 12pm to 5pm]

The symposium will be streamed live via MS Teams.

A Hundred Years Ago – A Royal Poet

The Department of Early and Medieval Irish warmly welcomes Anne Connon to a three-year appointment as Adjunct Senior Lecturer. Anne, who is currently based at Ohio Dominican University, Columbus, Ohio, USA, has previously taught at NUIG and at the University of Toronto, and has held research appointments with the Moore Institute and with the Discovery Programme. Her area of expertise is early medieval Irish history, notably the Middle Irish catalogue of famous women known as the Banshenchas. We look forward to benefiting from her knowledge, and to her participation in the life of the Department.

Roinn na Sean- agus na Meán-Ghaeilge welcome the publication of a new book by Dr Tadhg Ó Síocháin, Caoilte sa Luath-Fhiannaíocht (Coiscéim, 2021). Based on his PhD thesis which he completed in the Department in 2018, this is the first in-depth study of the character of Caoilte as presented in the early Finn Cycle. 

Professor John Carey will deliver this year's O'Donnell Lecture at 5pm on Friday 14 May via Microsoft Teams. Admission is free, all are welcome. https://www.english.ox.ac.uk/event/odonnell-lecture-2021  

John Carey, 'The Kindred of a Child without a Father: Merlin's British Forebears and Irish Cousins' 

Geoffrey of Monmouth, the twelfth-century writer who turned the Welsh Myrddin into the Merlin of Arthurian romance, in fact told two Merlin stories: there is Merlin the all-knowing child, son of a mysterious spirit; and Merlin the wild man, uttering prophecies from his hiding-place in the forest. This lecture will undertake to situate both Merlins within the broader context of insular Celtic traditions, and will explore the question of the original significance of the name Myrddin itself.

Looking at traditions concerning the four ‘cross-quarter days’ that divided the ancient Irish year – Lugnasad (1 August), Samain (1 November), Imbolc (1 February) and Beltaine (1 May) – we find multiple supernatural females. Lugnasad was associated with the god Lug’s fostermother Tailtiu, and with the witch Carman; Samain was called the feast of Mongfhind, a fairy woman to whom ‘women and the common people’ prayed on that night; and 1 February is of course the feastday of St Brigit, who cannot be entirely dissociated from the older goddess Brigit. But what about Beltaine?

You might expect that some of the stories about saints for the 1st of April would be hard to swallow, and in this respect Ireland does not disappoint: this is the feastday of Tuán son of Cairell. According to the late Old Irish Tale of Tuán, he was one of the first group of settlers in Ireland after the Flood, and then lived on through subsequent ages by regenerating in various shapes: stag, boar, cormorant, salmon. The salmon was cooked and eaten by the queen of Ulster, who bore Tuán again as a human child: when he grew up, he became a Christian and told his story to various saints. ‘Every history and genealogy in Ireland derives from Tuán son of Cairell.’ Ireland may be the only Christian country with a reincarnated saint. 

Tuán is listed as a saint for the 1st of April in the Martyrology of Tallaght. For a translation of the Tale of Tuán, see J. T. Koch and J. Carey, The Celtic Heroic Age (4th ed. 2003), pp. 223-5; for an edition, see J. Carey, ‘Scél Tuáin meic Chairill’, Ériu 35 (1984) 93-111. 

Toward the end of the account of Saint Patrick’s mission written by Tírechán, in the seventh century, there is a strange little story about the saint’s youthful experiences as a slave in Ireland. According to Tírechán, Patrick’s master was a druid called Miliucc, and during this time he himself was known as Succetus; he instructed Miliucc’s children in Christian doctrine, ‘and he taught them in silence under oath for fear of the druid’. In a dream one night, Miliucc saw sparks from the mouth of ‘the fool Succetus’ passing to his children, who were burnt to ashes, and other strange things. The symbolism of the dream is then explained, but we are given no explanation of why the young Patrick is called a ‘fool’, or fatuus. Was it because he had not yet learned to speak Irish well? Was it because his constant praying seemed unhinged? Or was he a sort of jester in Miliucc’s household? This single word hints at a part of Patrick’s story that has otherwise been forgotten.

The second talk in the School of Irish Learning Spring Seminar Series 2021 will take place this coming Thursday, 18 March, at 4pm. 

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday next, when our recently retired colleague, Dr Marie-Annick Desplanques, will speak on her work, over many years, developing the UCC Folklore and Ethnology Archive (UCCFEA).

Please contact emi@ucc.ie for the MS Teams link.

The School of Irish Learning is delighted to announce our Spring Seminar Series for 2021.
The series will begin this Thursday, 25 February, at 4pm. All lectures will be in English and will take place by means of our online platform MS Teams.

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday for some detective work from Cian Ó Cionnfhaolaidh, a Ph.D. student with the Locus Project in the Department of Early and Medieval Irish, as he presents his methodology and findings in his search to locate the boundaries of some ancient territories in Leinster and Ulster.

Everyone is welcome to attend.
Please contact emi@ucc.ie for the MS Teams link.

Tuesday 23 February, 5:15pm

Dr Peter Darby, University of Nottingham

Writing a Letter in the Age of Bede

Please contact c.dochartaigh@ucc.ie for a Teams link.

Sailing the sea and seeking the Land of Promise, Brendan heard a certain beast crying out in a human voice and invoking Brendan, and all of the other saints of the island of Ireland except for Brigit, lest another beast should harm it; but nevertheless it suffered from the other’s violence until it called upon Brigit. But after it invoked Brigit it escaped, and suffered no evil from its pursuer, inasmuch as the other, which pursued, said to it: ‘Since you invoked Brigit, I am not able to harm you.’ ... Thereafter Brendan came to Kildare, and to Brigit, so that he might know why the beast of the sea gave honour to Brigit beyond the other saints. When Brendan came to Brigit he asked her to testify as to her love of God. Brigit said to Brendan: ‘Give your testimony first, cleric, and I will give it after that.’ Brendan said: ‘Since the day that I took up devotion, I have never walked across seven furrows without having my mind on God.’ ‘The testimony is good,’ said Brigit. ‘Give your own testimony, nun,’ said Brendan. ‘By the Son of the Virgin,’ she said, ‘since the hour when I set my mind in Him, I have never taken it from Him.’ ‘By God, nun,’ said Brendan, ‘it is fitting for the beasts to give honour to you more than to us.’

(From the preface to the hymn Brigit bé bithmaith; text in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus ii.324-5.)

An Leabhar Breac, a manuscript of the early fifteenth century that is now in the Royal Irish Academy, is all the work of a single scribe, Murchadh Ó Cuindlis. Like many Irish scribes, he frequently made notes in the margins of the text, some of which give us a vivid sense of his thought and feelings. On page 73, he wistfully writes, ‘The robin is all red, Domhnall, and I am alone’ – a mixture of perception and feeling which is like a classic haiku.

On page 164 is a cynical little poem:

A kitten, which you rear so that it may be pleasant: when it has been made much of, it goes away from you to hunt.

A bad person is like that: you bring him up according to his wishes, and when you make a man of him, your bad person deserts you.

The reason for this discouragement becomes apparent directly afterward, in a sentence with a little box drawn around it in red: ‘The white cat is straying away from me.’

Poor Murchadh was still pining for his cat (or for its successor) 84 pages later, on page 248: ‘It is a wonder: the robin staying with us, and the cat fleeing from us.’

There is considerable excitement at the prospect of a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on the evening of Monday 21 December, the winter solstice; this is the first time that this conjunction has been visible since 1226. It has been suggested that the star of Bethlehem in the Gospel story may have been such a phenomenon: thus there was a dramatic conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in 2 BC.

But there have been other ideas about what the star of Bethlehem may have been. The Irish theologian Augustinus, in the treatise on miracles that he wrote in AD 655, worried that in leading the Magi to Bethlehem (‘like an arrow – but moving somewhat more slowly, to match the pace of those who followed’) the star would have abandoned its normal position in the heavens, upsetting the cosmic order. He suggested accordingly that the ‘star’ might really have been ‘aerial fire’, or an angel, or even the Holy Spirit in visible form. ‘For even as the Holy Spirit later descended in fire upon the apostles... so in the semblance of a star it led the Magi to the Lord.’

For the whole of Augustinus’ discussion of the star, see John Carey, King of Mysteries: Early Irish Religious Writings (Dublin: Four Courts, 2000), pp. 64-6.

The Department of Early and Medieval Irish congratulates all involved in the donation of the Book of Lismore to University College Cork, particularly our colleagues in the Library and in the School of Irish Learning. The Department wishes to pay special tribute to the generosity of the Duke of Devonshire, his family and the Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement in presenting this notable volume to UCC. 

This is the first book to examine the full range of the evidence for Irish charms, from medieval to modern times. As Ireland has one of the oldest literatures in Europe, and also one of the most comprehensively recorded folklore traditions, it affords a uniquely rich body of evidence for such an investigation. The collection includes surveys of broad aspects of the subject (charm scholarship, charms in medieval tales, modern narrative charms, nineteenth-century charm documentation); dossiers of the evidence for specific charms (a headache charm, a nightmare charm, charms against bleeding); a study comparing the curses of saints with those of poets; and an account of a newly discovered manuscript of a toothache charm. The practices of a contemporary healer are described on the basis of recent fieldwork, and the connection between charms and storytelling is foregrounded in chapters on the textual amulet known as the Leabhar Eoin, on the belief that witches steal butter, and on the nature of the belief that effects supernatural cures.

Seminar Series Autumn 2019

CACSSS Seminar Room

4 p.m., 28 November

Siobhán Browne

Irish Homes: Post-War Emigration to North Londo

Dé Sathairn 23 Samhain 2019 

Ba mhaith le Roinn na Sean- agus na Meán-Ghaeilge, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Corcaigh i bpáirt leis an gComhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta, Foclóir Leictreonach na Gaeilge (eDIL) agus Ollscoil Cambridge cuireadh a thabhairt do mhúinteoirí Gaeilge (T1 & T2) agus Staire (T1) páirt a ghlacadh i gceardlann.

This is the first volume of a two-part collection: the texts edited in the sequel will be concerned with the events of the end time, and in particular with the theme of the signs before the Day of Judgement.

Dé Sathairn 23 Samhain 2019 

Ba mhaith le Roinn na Sean- agus na Meán-Ghaeilge, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Corcaigh i bpáirt leis an gComhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta, Foclóir Leictreonach na Gaeilge (eDIL) agus Ollscoil Cambridge cuireadh a thabhairt do mhúinteoirí Gaeilge (T1 & T2) agus Staire (T1) páirt a ghlacadh i gceardlann.

Seminar Series Autumn 2019

CACSSS Seminar Room

4 p.m., 31 October

Kevin Murray

Revisiting the origins of Gaelic literary culture

Professor John Carey has been appointed O’Donnell Lecturer in Celtic Studies at the University of Oxford, for the academic year 2019-2020. The O’Donnell Lectures were established in 1954 in honour of Charles James O’Donnell; under the terms of his bequest the lectures can examine British or Celtic elements in the English language or in the existing population of England. The first O’Donnell Lecturer was J.R.R. Tolkien.

Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh was invited by the Scandinavian Studies Department of the University of Oslo to present at a colloquium on the subject of ‘Irish, Latin and Norse metre and rhyme c. 600-1100’ which was held from 10-11 October 2019. She gave a two-hour workshop on the subject of ‘Insular Latin hymns’ which encompassed a survey of Latin metre from Classical literature to early Christian hymnody and the possible influence such sources may have had on metres used in early Irish verse.

Professor John Carey gave a keynote lecture ‘The Nature of the Fomoiri: The Dark Other in the Medieval Irish Imagination’ at the seventh annual colloquium ‘Thinking About Mythology in the 21st Century’, held at the University of Edinburgh, 19-20 October 2019. This was an expanded version of a talk that he had earlier presented at UCC, as part of the New Foundations Research Workshop ‘Unprivileged Pasts, Unwritten Origins’, 21 September 2019.

The Twenty-First Annual Irish Texts Society Seminar will take place on Saturday, 9 November, 2019 in University College Cork under the auspices of the combined Departments of Irish. The subject of this year's event will be Táin Bó Cúalnge from the Book of Leinster, edited by Cecile O'Rahilly, Irish Texts Society Main Series vol. 49 (1969).

Transition Year Students: Are you interested in studying Celtic Civilisation?

UCC College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Studies (CACSSS) is delighted to announce the launch of Corvinus, a new Transition Year Programme for second level TY students interested in literary, creative, and historical humanities.

Professor John Carey presented an invited lecture "The Rise of Magic in Medieval Irish Narrative" at the symposium "Magie und Literatur: Interdisziplinäres Colloquium zur erzähl-kulturellen Funktionalisierung magischer Praktiken in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit", held at the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung, Munich, 16-18 September 2019.

Seminar Series Autumn 2019

CACSSS Seminar Room

4 p.m., 26 September

Neil Buttimer

Reflections on The Book of the O’Byrnes

Celtic Studies Publications has published Magic, Metallurgy and Imagination: Three Studies, by John Carey: xi + 107 pp, ISBN 9781891271281.

The sixteenth International Congress of Celtic Studies, held at Bangor University, 22-26 July 2019, featured papers by four members of the Department.

The Twenty-First Annual Irish Texts Society Seminar will take place on Saturday, 9 November, 2019 in University College Cork under the auspices of the Department of Early and Medieval Irish in association with the Department of Modern Irish. The subject of this year's event will be Táin Bó Cúalnge from the Book of Leinster, edited by Cecile O'Rahilly, Irish Texts Society Main Series vol. 49 (1969).

• Mícheál Ó Cléirigh prize winner Andrew Ó Donnghaile
• Four Courts Donnchadh Ó Corráin prize winner Marie-Luise Theuerkauf
• Irish Manuscripts Commission prize winner Maria Hallinan
• School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies prize winner Megan Henvey

Prof John Carey presenting Maria Hallinan, Roinn na Gaeilge, Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh with the inaugural Irish Manuscripts Commission prize for her presentation entitled: ‘The Senchas Már Status-Tract: Overview and First Insights’

Prof John Carey presenting Megan Henvey of the Department of History of Art, University of York with the inaugural Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, School of Celtic Studies prize for her presentation at the ICM entitled: ‘Communication Through Stone: The Iconography of the High Crosses’

Her Excellency Else Berit Eikeland signs the UCC Visitor’s Book accompanied by Professor Paul McSweeney, Vice-President for Learning and Teaching, Dr Emer Purcell of the NUI, Prof John Carey, Dr Stig Hellebust of the School of Chemistry, and Dr Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh the conference organiser.

Her Excellency Else Berit Eikeland signs the UCC Visitors’ Book with Professor Paul McSweeney, Vice-President for Learning and Teaching

The Department of Early and Medieval Irish, in conjunction with the Schools of English and History, the Departments of Archaeology and Classics, and Scoil Léann na Gaeilge, hosted the 33rd Irish Conference of Medievalists on 27-29 June 2019, with 47 speakers from 10 countries.

Professor John Carey presented a paper “Druid Spells in Medieval Munster: The Rhetorics of Forbais Dromma Damgaire” at the conference “‘To frighten off the rude and ignorant’? Intentional obscuritas in Irish and Welsh literature (650–1650)”, held at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, School of Celtic Studies, 24-25 May 2019.

At the conference on the Book of Ballycummin, or RIA MS 23 N 10, held at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, on 7-8 March 2019, papers were presented by Professor John Carey (“’Feen- und Elfengeschichten’ in Cín Dromma Snechtai”)  and by Dr Kevin Murray (“RIA MS 23 N 10 as a Manuscript Miscellany”).

Saturday 9 February 2019, O'Rahilly Building, University College Cork

The Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language in conjunction with the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, Cambridge University and the Department of Early and Medieval Irish UCC invite second level Irish and History teachers to join us for a workshop.
The aim of the workshop is to provide a forum for teachers to discuss the types of resources best suited to their classroom needs.

The Twentieth Annual Irish Texts Society Seminar will take place on Saturday, 17 November, 2018 in University College Cork under the auspices of the Department of Early and Medieval Irish in association with the Department of Modern Irish. 

John Carey, The Mythological Cycle of Medieval Irish Literature

Now available online at https://uccshop.ie/shop/mythological-cycle-medieval-irish-literature/

The Department of Early and Medieval Irish, in conjunction with the Schools of English and History, the Departments of Archaeology and Classics, and Scoil Léann na Gaeilge, hosted the 32nd Irish Conference of Medievalists on 28-30 June 2018, with 77 speakers from 14 countries. 

Professor John Carey has contributed a chapter on "Learning, Imagination and Belief" before the year 1000 to the first volume of the new four-volume The Cambridge History of Ireland. The first launch of this landmark publication, by an tUachtarán Michael D. Higgins, took place in Dublin Castle on 30 April, with further launches scheduled in Belfast, Cambridge and London.

Professor Emerita Máire Herbert and Professor Emeritus Pádraig Ó Riain will both be giving keynote lectures at the conference "Defining the Borders of Celtic Hagiography", to be held in the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, on 25-26 May. Professor Carey will also be presenting a paper.

A paperback version of Professor John Carey's edition of the Old Irish cosmological text In Tenga Bithnúa ("The Ever-New Tongue"), which appeared as part of the Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum in 2009, has just been published by Brepols; this book will be formally launched at the Irish Conference of Medievalists in June. The new publication provides a translation of the first recension of the text, introduced by a detailed discussion of its content and background, and followed by an appendix setting forth the evidence for dating.

Tadhg Ó Síocháin, The Case of the Abbot of Drimnagh: A Medieval Irish Story of Sex-Change, Cork Studies in Celtic Literatures 2 (launched 9 November): publication in departmental series.

The 19th annual Irish Texts Society Seminar was held on 11 November, hosted by the Combined Departments of Irish. Five lectures were presented, dedicated to the tale Tóraigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne and to its editor for the Society, Nessa Ní Shéaghdha: the speakers were Prof. Pádraig Ó Macháin (Nua-Ghaeilge), Dr Kevin Murray and, from outside UCC, Prof. M. del Henar Velasco López (Salamanca), Prof. Natasha Sumner (Harvard) and Prof. Ruairí Ó hUiginn (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies). The seminar was also the occasion for the launch of two new Society publications: a collection of the Latin and vernacular Lives of Saint Ailbhe, edited by Professor Emeritus Pádraig Ó Riain; and the proceedings of last year's seminar, The Matter of Britain in Medieval Ireland: Reassessments, edited by Professor John Carey.

The interdisciplinary module CC6008 is going from strength to strength. The workshop was held in the first week of the semester and both taught MA and structured Ph.D. students from a range of disciplines, including History, English, Digital Humanites, Archaeology and Medieval Irish, are taking the module for credit. Students from other universities, notably, UCD, TCD and Queens also attended.

The Early Finn Cycle by Kevin Murray to be launched by Dr Liam P. Ó Murchú on Thursday 7th September at 4.30 pm, in the Seomra Caidrimh (ORB G23), UCC. All Welcome!

The Department of Early and Medieval Irish has established a series of scholarly monographs, Cork Studies in Celtic Literatures; Dr Kevin Murray is series editor. The series as a whole was officially launched on 11 April 2017 with a lecture by Dr Geraldine Parsons (Glasgow) on 'A Fresh Start for a Familiar Tale: The Opening of Acallam na Senórach in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson B 487'.

On Friday 6 May-Saturday 8 May there took place at UCC the 9th Conference of the International Committee for Charms, Charmers and Charming, jointly hosted by the Department of Folklore and Ethnology, the Department of Early and Medieval Irish, and the Department of the Study of Religions. The papers included “Tres Boni Fratres in the Irish Tradition” by Ilona Tuomi, currently a PhD student in the Department of Early and Medieval Irish; and “The Dagda’s Spell in Tochmarc Emire” by Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, who received her doctorate from the Department last year. The concluding keynote lecture, “Charms in Medieval Irish Tales: Tradition, Adaptation, Invention”, was given by Prof. John Carey.

The Eighteenth Annual Irish Texts Society Seminar will take place on Saturday, 5 November, 2016 in University College Cork under the auspices of the Department of Early and Medieval Irish in association with the Department of Modern Irish. The subject of this year’s event will be Eachtra an Mhadra Mhaoil / Eachtra Mhacaoimh-an-Iolair: Two Irish Arthurian Romances, edited by R.A. Stewart Macalister, Irish Texts Society, Main Series vol. 10 (1908). The programme is available here: http://irishtextssociety.org/seminar.html

9th Conference of the International Committee for Charms, Charmers and Charming  

Charms, Charmers and Charming: Innovation and Tradition

Friday 6th – Sunday 8th May, 2016

On Wednesday 21 October, 2015, Professor Barry Lewis of the School of Celtic Studies, DIAS, presented a paper to the Departmental research seminar. This lecture was entitled ‘Magna, sister of St David: a case-study in hagiographical invention in medieval Wales, Brittany and Ireland.’

New Locus volume published.

Pádraig Ó Riain, Kevin Murray and Emma Nic Cárthaigh, Historical Dictionary of Gaelic Placenames / Foclóir Stairiúil Áitainmneacha na Gaeilge, Fascicle 6 / Fascúl 6 [Cóbh-Cutloch] (Irish Texts Society, London, 2016) xxxvii + 199pp. ISBN: 978-0-9575661-6-3.

See Irish Texts Society website for more details.

Book Launch

Sacred Histories: A Festschrift for Máire Herbert, edited by John Carey, Kevin Murray and Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh.