Ireland

Sun Dancing (Geoffrey Moorhouse)

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I picked this book up on the recommendation of a friend. It’s unusual. The first half is a set of imagined vignettes of the monks’ lives on Skellig Michael from its founding (circa 6th c) to eventual abandonment (circa 13th c). The second half is a set of non-fiction chapters about various aspects of early Irish history.

The whole book is well worth a look, although it’s good to remember that in the fifteen years since it was published, a fair amount of historical and archeological research has been done, some of which calls into question elements of the non-fiction chapters. For instance, the idea that anyone was wearing kilts (p. 205)this early in Irish (or Scottish) history has been reconsidered. Even so, it’s an accessible, intriguing entrypoint to the time period and culture.

Early Medieval Ireland, 400-1200 (Daibhi O Croinin)

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If you’re looking for a good, relatively recent (1995), concise but not too concise, introduction to Ireland from the introduction to Christianity to the 12th century invasion, you could do far worse than this book.

Just under 300 pages plus another 50 or so of resources (glossary, suggestions for further reading, bibliography), it packs a lot into a relatively small package. For comparison, I have two others on the shelf, waiting to be read, at roughly 1000 pages each.

There were places I wanted more detail. For instance on page 39, he describes briefly that “the pre-Christian practice […] reckoned time in terms of three-, five-, ten-, or fifteen-day periods, based on the lunar calendar […] the seven-day week was entirely unknown.” This is fascinating, a huge entrypoint into how people thought about their world and their place within it, but the author gives us nothing further. Bummer.

But overall, it’s a quick, nice introduction to the subject, accessible, even droll in places: “Modern scholars do not quite know what to make of Virgil. Is he just a dotty professor, like many of themselves, and therefore to be humoured?” (212). Very few pages went by without me underlining and/or annotating something in the margin, which is usually a sign of book in which a good time was had by all.

Celtic Myths (Miranda Jane Green)

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This little book packs a punch. Not even 100 pages and nicely illustrated, it still manages to be a nice, concise introduction to the belief system of the pre-Christian Celts. Of course, the brevity may owe something to how little we know with any certainty. Phrases like ‘there’s no direct archaeological evidence of…’ or ‘we can’t be certain that…’ appear with distressing regularity in any book about the Celts. It’s an inescapable problem. But if you’re looking for an entry point, there are worse places to start and not many better.

The Other British Isles (David W. Moore)

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This book is a quick read about a topic you (or at least me) thought you already knew something about–the smaller islands around England–but it turns out you’re wrong.  The prose is informative without being dense, always a plus.  My brain is still scarred from years of parsing academic articles.  If I never hear the word ‘praxis’ again, fine by me.  Anyway, this book.  Victor Hugo lived for years in exile on Jersey?  Who knew?  I was hoping for more information about Iona, since one of my current projects is set there but the book was fascinating nonetheless, particularly in regards to explaining how/why/how much the scattered islands do/do not consider themselves part of England.  Spoiler alert:  more no than yes.  The only real problem with the book is now I want to go see a whole bunch more places, all of which are relatively difficult to get to.

Irish Bog Book

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I was fortunate to see the Fadden More Psalter when I was in Dublin last August. Uncovered in a peat bog in 2006, it’s an awesome discovery on so many levels.

Not because of its fabulous illumination, like the Book of Kells and other insular manuscripts. Not so much. When 1000 years in a peat bog you have, look as good you will not. But its the first major find of this sort in 200 years and the first in an archeological context.

The conservation was probably an interesting project, since the parchment of many leaves had been eaten away but not under the letters because of the ink’s acidity, leading to an odd alphabet soup.

The cover is as important, if not more, as the book itself, telling us for the first time what the outside of early Irish books would have looked and how they were kept. It looks like nothing so much as a 9th century Trapper-Keeper, the book sliding into the cover but not attached to it.

But the icing on the cake is the papyrus inside the front cover, suggesting a potential link between the early Irish church and Coptic Egypt. It’s not known how Christianity came to Ireland. There were enough Christians in Ireland by 410 AD that the Pope sent them a Bishop, Palladius. Saint Patrick gets the credit for converting Ireland but he has, alas, more PR than history on his side. The papyrus find makes one wonder if Coptic missionaries were the real source.

Celtic Myth Podshow

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Among the multitude of audio delights with which I cram my Ipod for the mile-long walk to and from the youngest children’s elementary school is the Celtic Myth Podshow.

I only stumbled across it a few months ago, and consequently am three years behind their new episodes, but so far I’ve been enjoying it tremendously.

County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society

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Since 1903 the County Louth Archeaological and Historical Society has been encouraging interest in and research about County Louth’s past.  They publish a Journal as well.  It’s quite a useful resource for people (*ahem!*) working on historical fiction set in the area.

My understanding is that most if not all counties have some sort of historical society, and certainly a local museum, so if your research happens to take you to County Cork or County Mead rather than County Louth, most likely you’ll find a local historical society there as well.

The Archaeology of Early Medieval Ireland. Nancy Edwards.

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The only problem with this book is that everything it says is important. You can’t actually underline everything. It took me months to read, mostly because I had to stop every few pages to let my brain process the chockfull o’ goodness facts. I may well have to read it again to hope to get a good grasp on what’s here. Because it’s all here. What archaeology tells us about housing, food, clothing, artisans, artwork, weapons and fighting techniques, church architecture, and agriculture in early medieval Ireland.

I do wish there were a newer edition of the book. It was originally published in 1990 and a great deal has been discovered in the two decades since. Like Linn Duachaill. Indeed, her description of how little we know about Viking settlement in Ireland, particularly outside areas that developed into large cities (i.e. Dublin, and to a lesser extent Waterford) underscores the importance of the Linn Duachaill discovery.

Never Too Early

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So you’re looking for a way to introduce the subject of early Ireland to your children…?

All parents face this problem. It’s never too soon to start the delicate, important conversation about where manuscripts come from.

I’ve found a bit of help: The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane by C.M. Millen, illustrated by Andrea Wisnewski. Charlesbridge, 2010.

It’s available on Amazon.

Irish History Podcast

Michelle Markey Butler 1 Comment

I’m new to the world of podcasts but now that I’ve got a mile long walk to take my kids to school, I’ve been looking for Ipod-based entertainment for the daily trek.

One I’ve been enjoying is the Irish History Podcast.

I haven’t been able to get a functioning link inserted here. Hey, if I were good with techy stuff, I’d be off somewhere making webpages and buckets of money. Actually, I take that back. I do okay with technology. So long as it’s 9th century technology.

Anyway, their web address is irishhistorypodcast.ie.