Symposium Highlights Cutting Edge Research about Medieval Dublin
Posted on: 19 May 2015
Medieval Dragons terrorizing the people of Dublin, grisly discoveries at Swords Castle and the return of an important early 14th-century manuscript to its city of origin after 400 years were among topics explored at a symposium in Trinity College Dublin, which sought to bring cutting-edge historical and archaeological research about medieval Dublin to the general public.
The 17th Medieval Dublin Symposium, which took place on Saturday, May 16th, 2015, comprised a series of eight lectures focusing on the archaeology, history and literature of Dublin from the Vikings to the Tudors.
The conference aimed to promote wider public understanding and enjoyment of our capital city’s often neglected medieval inheritance, explains organiser of the event Professor of Medieval Irish History Seán Duffy: “The annual Medieval Dublin Symposium is for the people of Dublin. It is a series that seeks to make cutting-edge historical and archaeological scholarship accessible to all people interested in researching, teaching or learning about the history of Dublin in the Middle Ages."
The recent return of an early 14th-century manuscript produced at St Mary’s Abbey in Dublin to its city of origin after 400 years was the subject of the key note address at the conference. Dr Bernard Meehan, Keeper Of Manuscripts at Trinity Library, talked about the Library’s recent acquisition of this manuscript. The manuscript was compiled on parchment in a Dublin monastery, St Mary’s Abbey, after which Mary’s Street and Abbey Street are named.
This valuable literary and historical manuscript has been long lost to public view and has never before been the subject of academic analysis. Among the contents of this precious manuscript are copies of the first books ever written about Ireland, the writings of Giraldus Cambrensis. The 700-year old manuscript contains a considerable body of new information which will help to re-evaluate the history and culture of St Mary’s Abbey and the civic life of Dublin in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Dr Meehan’s landmark lecture was the first of eight public talks given on the day at the event. Other highlights included a lecture by Professor Gabriel Cooney, Professor of Celtic Archaeology at University College Dublin, who reported on his ongoing investigations on the archaeology of Lambay Island. Historical sources say that St Columcille founded a monastery there in the 6th century and Professor Cooney will examine what traces of the long-vanished Columban monastery may survive on the island to this day.
The Symposium, organised by the Department of History at Trinity and the Friends of Medieval Dublin, also heard news of other recent archaeological excavations in the city including an excavation at Baldoyle that has produced evidence of human activity from the Viking Age onwards (led by Paul Duffy), and another that saw the grisly discovery of medieval bodies under the gatehouse of Swords Castle (led by Mark Moraghan).
One of the most enduring medieval folktales is the story of Tristem and Isolde, but it is not widely known that there is an important Dublin and Irish dimension to the tale. Focusing on the earliest Middle English version of the story, “Sir Tristem”, Dr Caoimhe Whelan, who recently completed her PhD at the Department of History, Trinity, examined Tristem’s interactions with the Irish, revealing Ireland as a sphere where giants, dragons and magic abound. In her lecture entitled “Giants, dragons and magic: Sir Tristrem’s adventures in medieval Dublin” she explained how this text offers a fascinating and energetic version of the popular medieval tale and a unique fourteenth-century depiction of ‘Delvelin … An haven in Irland’ complete with a vivid description of a dragon terrorizing the people of Dublin.