The Medieval Irish History Podcast

Hosted by Dr Niamh Wycherley, this podcast shows that medieval Irish history is complex and dynamic — not at all stuffy or static. Via lively and engaging chats with leading experts, it explores aspects of a largely ignored, but commonly evoked, period, and shares new and exciting research on medieval Ireland.medievalirishhistory@gmail.comSupported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann. Views expressed are speakers' own.Production: Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva.Logo design: Matheus de Paula CostaMusic: Lexin_Music

The Medieval Irish History Podcast is a history podcast hosted by Dr Niamh Wycherley, with 63 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 81. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Dr Niamh Wycherley hosts The Medieval Irish History Podcast, a history show with 63 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

• 

  Episode #12

  Musicology with Prof. Karen Desmond

  Jul 28, 202649 minS3

  For our last episode in season 3 we are joined by our erudite colleague in the Department of Music, Prof. Karen Desmond to learn how the discipline of musicology contributes to our understanding of medieval history. We are brought around Europe, Britain and Ireland through the Middle Ages and chat about polyphony, vocal music, plainchant, the motivations for writing music down, and much more. We discover that the development of music notation can tell us a lot about the connections between communities and how music was created: that a lot of music was not just 'vibes'-based, but used a lot of theory and was a collaborative effort; that music can tell us about the society and communities in which they were produced; and that there were many different kinds of music traditions reflecting local and cultural contexts. The name of the piece of music featured in the episode is Au cuer ai en mai and the performers are Anonymous 4 from their Love’s Illusion album. Suggested resources: - Karen Desmond, Music and the Moderni, 1300-1350: The Ars Nova in Theory and Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2018) - BROKENSONG project website: https://ahi.maynoothuniversity.ie/brokensong/ - Ann Buckley, 'Music and musicians in medieval Irish society', Early Music , Volume XXVIII, Issue 2, May 2000, 165–192 - Sara Gibbs Casey, ‘Through a glass, darkly’: Steps towards reconstructing Irish chant from the neumes of the Drummond Missal, Early Music , Volume XXVIII, Issue 2, May 2000, 205–216 - John Milson on Josquin and the technique of ’stretto fuga’ (a term Milsom coined) is in the book chapter ‘“Imitatio”, “intertextuality”, and Early Music’ in Citation and Authority in Medieval and Renaissance Music Culture, ed. S. Clark and E. E. Leach (Woodbridge, 2005). - Peter Schubert' videos on improvising canons are on YouTube: https://youtu.be/n01J393WpKk?si=dfXshQOGdNJXxlcq - Check out DIAMM (the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music) for images of polyphonic medieval music manuscripts: https://www.diamm.ac.uk/ Regular episodes every month (on a Friday) Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland. Views expressed are the speakers' own. Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa Music: Lexin_Music

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  The Medieval Irish History Podcast

  Later medieval Ireland with Dr Sparky Booker

  Jul 3, 202656 min

  REPEAT. ICYMI. Hope you’re all having a great summer. We didn’t get a chance to record another podcast episode recently and I don’t quite feel ready to call it quits on this season just yet, so we might release a couple of new episodes over the summer, you’ll just have to watch this space. In the meantime, I wanted to re-release this episode with the incredible Dr Sparky Booker, Assistant Professor in Medieval Irish History, Trinity College Dublin, in case anyone missed it. Sparky enlightens us on the legal systems in force in 14th and 15th century Ireland, how to keep your land and why Elizabeth Le Veele married King of Leinster, Art McMurrough. She also discusses how the prevalence of intermarriage in the so-called 'four obedient shires' indicates that the English and Irish interacted far more peaceably and amicably than the often belligerent attitudes displayed toward the Irish in records from the colony would indicate, and that the attempts made by the Irish parliament to distance the English of Ireland from their Irish neighbours were largely unsuccessful. Suggested reading: Sparky Booker, Cultural Exchange and Identity in late medieval Ireland: the English and Irish of the Four Obedient Shires, Studies in Medieval Life and Thought Series (Cambridge, 2018) Sparky Booker, ‘Women and legal history: the case of late medieval English Ireland and the challenges of studying ‘women’’, Irish Historical Studies, 46:170 (2022), pp 224-243 Sparky Booker, ‘Intermarriage in fifteenth-century Ireland: the English and Irish in the ‘four obedient shires’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy , 113c (2013), pp 219-250 Sparky Booker, ‘Widowhood and attainder in medieval Ireland: the case of Margaret Nugent’ in Deborah Youngs and Teresa Phipps (eds), Litigating women: gender and justice in Europe, c.1300-c.1800 (Abingdon, 2022), pp 81-98 Ellis, Stephen G. (1998). Ireland in the Age of the Tudors, 1447-1603: English Expansion and the End of Gaelic Rule (2nd ed.). Routledge Regular episodes every month (on a Friday) Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland. Views expressed are the speakers' own. Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa Music: Lexin_Music

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #15

  The Friars in Ireland with Conor McDonough

  Jun 12, 202652 minS3

  This week we are back with part two of our mammoth session with Fr Conor McDonough OP, an exceptional Research Ireland funded PhD researcher in Classics, University of Galway. Conor tells us all about the new mendicant orders in 13th century Ireland: the Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites and Augustinians. Conor explains that these new orders were like 'networks of mass communication' and that friars are kind of like itinerant and urban monks. We hear tales of decline and reform, the Fourth Lateran Council, ethnic tensions, the encroaching black death, and attempts to establish an Irish university in the 1320s. Suggested reading and resources: Treasure Ireland Youtube series https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdPbRZbumpDdJjMBmh_wlGVdx_rQVH38O - Ó Clabaigh, Colmán, ‘The Church, 1050–1460’, in Brendan Smith (ed.), The Cambridge History of Ireland. 1. 600–1550 (Cambridge, 2018), 355–384 - Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB, The Friars in Ireland, 1224-1540 , Dublin: Four Courts, 2011. - Yvonne McDermott, ‘Women as patrons and benefactors of the friars in medieval Connacht’, Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies , vol. 8 (2019), pp. 235-266. - Edel Bhreathnach, ‘The mendicant orders and vernacular Irish learning in the late medieval period’, Irish Historical Studies , vol. 37, no. 147 (2011), pp. 357-375. Regular episodes every month (on a Friday) Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland. Views expressed are the speakers' own. Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa Music: Lexin_Music

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #14

  Church Reforms and Religious Orders with Conor McDonough

  Jun 5, 202656 minS3

  <p>Welcome back all! This month we are joined by Fr Conor McDonough OP, an exceptional Research Ireland funded PhD researcher in Classics, University of Galway. Conor elucidates the variety of religious life in the Middle Ages focussing on the new religious orders introduced as part of wider church reforms in the 11th and 12th centuries. This episode touches on a number of big themes such as the conflict between 'church and state', colonisation, language, ethnicity, patronage, and decline. What is the difference between a monk and a priest? Why are there two Cathedrals in Dublin? Why did the Cistercians...

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  The Medieval Irish History Podcast

  Bonus: Reassessing Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair with Dr Seán Ó Hoireabhárd

  May 11, 202631 minS0

  <p>Some extra time with our resident expert on all things Irish kingship Dr Seán Ó Hoireabhárd (Bergin Scholar, School of Celtic Studies, DIAS, & author of Medieval Irish Kings and the English Invasion). This episode accompanies the main episode on the life and career of the supposed last Irish king of all Ireland, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, aka Rory O'Connor. Here Seán tells us how King Ruaidrí's legacy was shaped by later commentators and nationalist propaganda. </p><p>Suggested reading:</p><p>Seán Ó Hoireabhárd, Medieval Irish Kings and the English Invasion. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2024.</p><p>...

  ListenShow Notes

Recent guests on The Medieval Irish History Podcast. Study who booked and why before you pitch.

Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.