Network Member Profiles
Mark Hennessy, Trinity College, Dublin.
Biography
My main area of research is the historical geography of Ireland from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. My Ph.D. thesis was entitled The Anglo-Norman colony in rural County Tipperary:, c.1185-c.1540: an historical geography. My medium term project is an historical geography of Ireland in the thirteenth century (1199-1307). Themes included under this wide heading are: patterns of landholding; settlement; agriculture and land use; landscape; territorial organisation; and language, law, culture and identity. These themes are examined within the overall perspective of what Michael Mann calls "overlapping and intersecting socio-spatial networks of Power" as constructed in the colonial context of high medieval Ireland. In examining power I also draw on the work of Pred, Foucault and closure theory as applied to the middle ages by Rigby. Ireland is also placed within a comparative Angevin and European context. I mainly work with contemporary documentary evidence, (manorial records, monastic cartularies; Chancery, Exchequer and judiciary records of the central and Irish governments; Gaelic sources) but also use surviving field and archaeological evidence.
Contact
mhnnessy@tcd.ie
University Homepage
Click here.
Research Interests
Historical geography - medieval Ireland - environmental history.
Collaborative Interests
I am coordinator, with Conor Newman of the Department of Archaeology, the National University of Ireland, Galway, of a multi-disciplinary study of the the settlement history of the Blackwater valley, Co. Meath funded by the HEA within the NUIG Centre for Settlement Studies. This is a three-year project: most of the effort in the first year is being given over to the preparation of a dated pollen diagram for the area. Dr Karen Molloy is employed as the palynologist on the project.
Themes
Earth.
Selected Publications
Hennessy, M. (2015) Adapting a Medieval Urban Landscape in Nineteenth-Century Ireland: The Example of Trim, County Meath, In: Simms, A. and Clarke, H. B. (eds.), Lords and Towns in Medieval Europe: The European Historic Towns Atlas Project. London: Routledge, 483-492.
Ludlow, F., Stine, A. R., Leahy, P., Murphy, E., Mayewski, P., Taylor, D., Killen, J., Baillie, M., Hennessy, M. and Kiely, G. (2013) Medieval Irish Chronicles Reveal Persistent Volcanic Forcing of Severe Winter Cold Events, 431-1649 CE, Environmental Research Letters, 8 (2), L024035, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/2/024035. Download pdf.
Hennessy, M. (2013) Administration, In: Clarke, H. B. and Gearty, S. (eds.), Maps and Texts: Exploring the Irish Historic Towns Atlas. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 152-163.
Hennessy, M. (2012) Making Ireland English in the Thirteenth Century: The Evidence of the Irish Lay Subsidy of 1292, In: Duffy, P. J. and Nolan, W. (eds.), At the Anvil: Essays in Honour of William J. Smyth. Dublin: Geography Publications, 81-92.
Hennessy, M. (2011) Medieval Settlement: The Manor of Dowth, In: Stefanini, B. and McGlynn, G. (eds.), North Meath: Irish Quaternary Association Field Guide No. 29. Dublin: Irish Quaternary Association, 84-88.
Hennessy, M. (2008) Mapping power and identity in Early Modern Ireland, Journal of Historical Geography, 34 (1), 153-156.
Clarke, H. B., Prunty, J. and Hennessy, M. (eds.) (2004) Surveying Ireland's Past: Multidisciplinary Essays in Honour of Anngret Simms. Dublin: Geography Publications.
Hennessy, M. (2004) Manorial agriculture and settlement in early fourteenth-century Co. Tipperary, In: Clarke, H. B., Prunty, J. and Hennessy, M. (eds.), Surveying Ireland's Past: Multidisciplinary Essays in Honour of Anngret Simms. Dublin: Geography Publications, 99-117.
Hennessy, M. (ed.) (2004) Trim, Irish Historic Towns Atlas, No. 14. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy.
Hennessy, M. (1996) Manorial organisation in early thirteenth century Tipperary, Irish Geography, 29 (2), 116-125.
Hennessy, M. (1988) The priory and hospital of Newgate: the evolution and decline of a monastic estate, In: Smyth, W. J. and Whelan, K. (eds.), Common Ground: Essays on the historical geography of Ireland, presented to T. Jones Hughes. Cork: Cork University Press, 141-154.
Hall, D. N., O'Keeffe, T. and Hennessy, M. (1985) Medieval settlement and agriculture in Oughterard and Castlewarden, Co. Kildare, Irish Geography, 18, 16-25.
Hennessy, M. (1985) Parochial organisation in medieval Tipperary, In: Nolan, W. (ed.), Tipperary History and Society. Dublin: Geography Publications, 60-70.