It’s 9 p.m. in Granada train station. The prospect of spending 11 hours on a night train up to Barcelona is daunting – this is epic by my standards – I get bored on the way to Cork. Ill-prepared as always when I went to book a ticket at the last minute all the sleepers… Read more »
It’s years since I’ve read a novel and I had planned to use my current holiday in Spain to get away from history and back to fiction. However, ill-prepared as usual, I left getting a book to the last minute and had to grab something in the airport. The best I could find was more… Read more »
By the early 14th century, Kilkenny was the largest inland settlement in Ireland. Its annual eight-day fair attracted merchants from far and wide. In 1306, among those hoping to sell goods at the fair was William Douce, a leading merchant in Dublin. However getting goods from Dublin to Kilkenny was no easy task. The overland… Read more »
I am delighted to announce my book Witches Spies and Stockholm Syndrome, Life in Medieval Ireland is hitting the shops in the coming days. Focusing on medieval Ireland; the book unveils a world that often occupies somewhere between history and fantasy in our minds eye. It was unquestionably a strange world but one far from… Read more »
Dublin Castle Ever heard moans and groans near the castle? Well they could be supernatural. In 1316, a convicted thief called Roger de Fynglas was sentenced to death by hanging, but for an unknown reason he was instead returned to a cell in Dublin Castle and condemned ‘there to stay without having food until he… Read more »
Dublin Castle, St Mary's Abbey, Arnold le Poer, Burned at the stake, College Green, Four Courts
This carving from Kilkea castle, Co. Kildare is among the strangest you’ll find in Ireland. There are four figures – a rather excited dog to the left, then what appears to be two men, one with a boar’s head getting it on and finally there’s a bird of some description on the right. Strange to… Read more »
1. Starve in a prison cell In 1331 one of the most infamous murders of the 14th century took place. After discovering that his cousin was involved in a treasonous plot, the Earl of Ulster and Lord of Connacht, William de Burgh, starved him to death in a prison cell in the remote Northburgh castle.… Read more »
Bunratty castle celebrates its fiftieth anniversary of hosting comercial medieval banquets this year however this pleasant aesthetic hides a darker history of the castle. Built in the mid 13th century, Bunratty passed to the Lord of Thomond Thomas de Clare in the 1270s. Maintaining the castle was by no means easy; it was situated on a precarious… Read more »
The Red Wedding in Game of Thrones was perhaps some of the most shocking tv this year. Killing off several central characters with that level of brutality was always going to cause controversy. Brutal as it was though, if you’ve listened to the podcast series you’ll know medieval Irish history can match this. While its… Read more »
By the late 13th century medieval Dublin had reached its zenith. Having benefited from over a century of trade, it was unquestionably the primary settlement in Ireland. While not the biggest walled town – it was surpassed by Drogheda and New Ross – its sprawling suburbs made it the most populous settlement with ten to… Read more »
In a court in Kerry in 1295, a Richard de Cantolup faced the accusation ‘that he allowed his pigs to eat a child which was imputed to be his own son and kept those pigs which ought to have been delivered to the coroner’ Initially this may seem like medieval imaginations gone overboard, but not… Read more »
The medieval toilet was an experience many today would struggle with. The most common medieval privy was the cesspit; just a hole in the ground which was sometimes lined with stone or wooden staves. In castles, things werent much better. While the powerful and wealthy could afford a somewhat more sophisticated toilet; the garderobe, this… Read more »
When we think of the medieval diet, we often think of dull boring meals revolving around plain bread and perhaps some meat roasted over a fire. The reality was very different. If you had the resources the food markets of 14th century Dublin were arrayed with mouth-watering delights. In the surviving records from the Priory… Read more »
Relating to the past can be incredibly difficult in the 21st century. Our distant ancestors lived what seem to us incomprehensible lives. When we think of things like the Roman Empire in many respects its like an alternate universe. Kilree monastic site is one of the few places you can visit that provides continuity through… Read more »
On Sunday October 10th 1869, Dublin heaved with excitement and trepidation. Political banners hung from houses while the city’s trade union offices buzzed with excitement. Despite a police ban on a planned procession through the city tens of thousands of people turned out. They were joined by thousands more who flooded into the city from… Read more »
John Devoy, Manchester Martyrs, Cuba 5, David Donnelly, Freemans Journal, Friedrich Engels, G.H. Moore, International Democratic Association, Isaac Butt, J.P. Madden, J.P. McDonnell, John Keegan, John Nolan, John O Leary, Manchester, Mechanics Institute, Michael Larkin, O Donovan Rossa, Salford, Thomas Kelly, William Allen, William Deasy, William O Brien
While it may seem incredible, in 1867 this Tipperary man Thomas Burke was one of two Irish rebels who were the last people sentenced to death by hanging, drawing and quartering! While this brutal practice may be one of the most gruesome inventions of the medieval period it survived until 1870 before being struck off… Read more »
Tipperary, hanged drawn and quartered, hanging drawing and quartering, Patrick Doran, Thomas Burke
Irish Farmers Don’t Wear Cravats
Irish Spies in World War II
Could you survive on a pre-Famine Irish diet? I tried…