As thoughts in some households turn to the summer festival season I write about how the people of medieval Ireland were having a great time together in big fields over a thousand years ago and more. Before Electric Picnic, There Was the Óenach open.substack.com/pub/medieval...

Delighted to see this published and many congrats to Ciara. It’s a brilliant and thought-provoking work and I have throughly enjoyed reading it.

"So ... so I said ... why not sign your treaty here, at Versailles?"

Loving the artwork for my Seed Talk on the Banshee. It’s on next month in Cork and should be good craic. Link for tickets is below if you are interested in coming along. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1989391634...

Because I appear to want trouble I wrote about how Diarmait Mac Murchada (yes the one who opened the door to invasion) is misunderstood. medievalgill.substack.com/p/the-man-wi...

Strabo wrote in the first century AD that Ireland was “at the very edge of the habitable world” and was home to “completely wild people [who] live a wretched existence on account of the cold” As I type it’s June and I have just put a jumper on as the rain lashes down. Little wonder we went wild

A quick reminder of this Seed Talk I’ll be giving in Cork in July. It’s selling out so if anyone is around Cork and wants to chat Banshee it’d be great to see ye there Details below: The Banshee in Irish Folklore: Folklore, history, gender and belief www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-banshe...

I visited the monastery at Monasterboice this week and was struck by how the quietness of its ruins can be misleading. >

I visited the monastery at Monasterboice this week and was struck by how the quietness of its ruins can be misleading. >

A quick reminder of this Seed Talk I’ll be giving in Cork in July. It’s selling out so if anyone is around Cork and wants to chat Banshee it’d be great to see ye there Details below: The Banshee in Irish Folklore: Folklore, history, gender and belief www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-banshe...

Loving the artwork for my Seed Talk on the Banshee. It’s on next month in Cork and should be good craic. Link for tickets is below if you are interested in coming along. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1989391634...

Great listen, Dr Gillian Kenny (@medievalgill.bsky.social) talks about Gráinne O Malley/Granuaile: her life, Brehon Law, her engagement with the Tudors, dispels the myths where possible ...Tudors and hankies!!Gráinne is the subject of her forthcoming book. #SpéirGhorm www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Happy to say I’ll be in Cork on 13 July giving a Seed Talk on the Banshee. Come along, listen to weird stories and maybe have a bit of craic too. www.cyprusavenue.ie/gigs/seed-ta...

The view today

His name was John Atherton, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore and you can read a bit more about him here and the questions that still hang over his case here open.substack.com/pub/medieval...

The first man to be executed for the crime of buggery in Ireland was a seventeenth century Bishop >

🎆Job Klaxon!!🎆 Full-time, permanent lectureship in Old and Middle Irish at Maynooth University @maynoothuniversity.ie. Application deadline 26 July 2026. Tar ag obair linn i Roinn na Sean-Ghaeilge @ceilteachomn.bsky.social! my.corehr.com/pls/nuimrecr...

I just fed an old translation of a 15th century bardic poem into Pangram and it has flagged it as 100% AI generated.

Prints of Queen Medb should start arriving tomorrow - pick up one for yourself here: www.ciaraioch.com/artprints/p/...

What a day. That’s Bran the dog leaping into the sea. Half dog half seal that one

Do you think you might like to read about a medieval cure for horny men that made them stand in very cold water for long periods? >

Do you think you might like to read about a medieval cure for horny men that made them stand in very cold water for long periods? >

For the evening crowd. I wrote about a poet called Líadain who lived in 7thC Ireland and who had to make a difficult choice. And of course who then thought a lot about it and wrote about it because…art.

What to do, what to do when you’re an acclaimed and busy poet at the top of your profession and then a man comes along to propose? Can you be a working poet and a wife and mother? Modern problem? Not so much. Here’s what Líadain, a 7thC Irishwoman did. substack.com/@medievalgil...

Tfw you’re reading a book you COMPLETELY FORGOT you contributed to and then do a double-take at your own name in the list of contents…

What to do, what to do when you’re an acclaimed and busy poet at the top of your profession and then a man comes along to propose? Can you be a working poet and a wife and mother? Modern problem? Not so much. Here’s what Líadain, a 7thC Irishwoman did. substack.com/@medievalgil...

The Manuscript of the Week is RIA MS 23 P 12, the Book of Ballymote. It was compiled in AD 1391 at Ballymote, Co Sligo and contains genealogical, historical, topographical, biblical and hagiographical material. One of the most visually striking sections is a key to the Ogham alphabet.

it's the feast day of St Brendan the Navigator today. He is famous for his Voyage, a description of a journey said to have been undertaken by him and his monks around the Atlantic looking for, well, Paradise really. They got into a small leather boat and travelled around for seven years >

Just the story of a man who found Paradise in leather. Side note: when we got our little robo vac I called him Brendan because he is, like the real thing, a hardy navigator who basically follows a circuit.

it's the feast day of St Brendan the Navigator today. He is famous for his Voyage, a description of a journey said to have been undertaken by him and his monks around the Atlantic looking for, well, Paradise really. They got into a small leather boat and travelled around for seven years >

In early Irish law, trees had legal protection. In later centuries some trees were 'owned' by the fairies and so could not be touched. In the 20th century that respect/fear could bend a motorway.. New, free post on sacred trees, fairies, a few kings and a motorway open.substack.com/pub/medieval...

My dear friend Sama'a has just learned her three-year-old daughter needs glasses, which in Gaza are both difficult to find and expensive. Please give what you can. chuffed.org/project/1575...

In early Irish law, trees had legal protection. In later centuries some trees were 'owned' by the fairies and so could not be touched. In the 20th century that respect/fear could bend a motorway.. New, free post on sacred trees, fairies, a few kings and a motorway open.substack.com/pub/medieval...

There’s a great podcast on her with @medievalgill.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

This thread was written in good faith but cos I’m writing a book on her and IMMERSED atm I have to say 1. She wasn’t a pirate. She was a Gaelic sea lord. Just cos the Tudors didn’t like the system doesn’t make it piracy 2. She likely never met Liz I. That story comes later and isn’t contemporary

Bit of Saturday reading… I wrote about the evil eye belief in Ireland. Imagine a world where envy crept around like a living thing and caused destruction. And where the superpower that stopped it was generally wielded by old women open.substack.com/pub/medieval...

Bit of Saturday reading… I wrote about the evil eye belief in Ireland. Imagine a world where envy crept around like a living thing and caused destruction. And where the superpower that stopped it was generally wielded by old women open.substack.com/pub/medieval...

Hopefully I’m writing a new book on Gráinne O Malley at the right time. Just saw they’re putting on a festival focused on her on Achill Island this month. I’ll maybe aim for a visit in 2028 with a bootful of books😉 circus250.com/festivals/th...

I wrote about when English people thought Ireland (yes the actual country) was trying to kill them. Yep. Explained below

Ever think to yourself “God this country makes me sick?” Course we mean things like politics, the weather, the news or just the general state of things. In Tudor Ireland though, English soldiers feared something more literal: that Ireland itself was making them sicken and die >

Today’s reading reminds us that no matter how embarrassed you were it wasn’t this “In the case of Nicholas Conyll, his wife’s suit for an annulment because of his alleged impotency led to a physical examination carried out by a panel of nine men who scrutinised his penis on behalf of the court” BUT

Free article on him here on my substack - open.substack.com/pub/medieval...

Doing my research for my Gráinne O Malley book I came across an old favourite, Rory Óg O More. A man whose success in guerrilla warfare drove the agents or Tudor Ireland quite mad with fury >

Doing my research for my Gráinne O Malley book I came across an old favourite, Rory Óg O More. A man whose success in guerrilla warfare drove the agents or Tudor Ireland quite mad with fury >

So maybe the 4am yowling is a attempt to frighten the spirits?

Love a cheeky Latin phrase, but this one, from the Scots poem Ratis Raving in CUL Kk.1.5, is a new one to me: qui culpat manum scriptoris lambiat anum I'll leave the translation to the reader, but M.R. James calls it "a very rude colophon"

People legally classified cats in medieval Ireland. There were 8 types and one of them was a cat who could frighten particular spirits. For those of us owned by cats this latter belief will not come as a surprise More on these, as well as other oddities here open.substack.com/pub/medieval...

People legally classified cats in medieval Ireland. There were 8 types and one of them was a cat who could frighten particular spirits. For those of us owned by cats this latter belief will not come as a surprise More on these, as well as other oddities here open.substack.com/pub/medieval...

I spent time in a Victorian pet cemetery recently and came away thinking about medieval Irish pets. This is what happens when you're a medieval historian. >

I spent time in a Victorian pet cemetery recently and came away thinking about medieval Irish pets. This is what happens when you're a medieval historian. >