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Medieval History Research Centre

About Us

MHRC

Background to the Centre’s Establishment

The Centre’s location within the framework of the School of Histories and Humanities continues a long tradition of group interaction and joint research within the former Department of Medieval History, begun by Professor Jocelyn Otway-Ruthven, when she acquired a set of rooms in Lincoln Place for this purpose in the 1970s. In the beginning the Centre’s activities had a narrowly historical focus, mainly focused around the postgraduate team-work on the Leverhulme-funded 'Chancery Rolls Project'. This involved both practical research conducted in manuscript archives around Britain to retrieve transcripts and summaries of texts from the lost Chancery Rolls of Ireland, and the setting up of a computer database for entering the reconstructed texts, one of the earliest applications of computer technology to this kind of project. It is a matter of great sadness that the premature death of Dr Philomena Connolly of the National Archives in June 2002 halted plans to produce an English calendar of the reconstructed Chancery rolls in electronic and book form. The project has, however, been recently advanced following the acquisition of IRCHSS funding between 2008 and 2011.

Although historical research in the Centre on both Irish and European history gradually expanded, the addition of Professor T.B. Barry to the staff at the end of the 1970s broadened the scope of the group's activities to include settlement history and archaeology, which have proved a major area of postgraduate interest ever since. Professor Barry's students have been systematically listing and surveying the tower houses of later medieval Ireland county by county. Those whose research was based on more literary or administrative records were able to contribute documentation or literary references on the historical background to the field monuments when the students reported back to the weekly seminars.

Accommodation and Facilities

The Centre is located in 5-7 South Leinster Street, a short walk from the Department of History. It offers users the following facilities:

  • A non-lending library, housing rare editions of original sources and a significant collection of specialist journals, reference works and secondary sources, including reports on archeological excavations. The collections are constantly updated. Also stored are boxes of microfilms of manuscripts from The National Archives in London and elsewhere, including a complete set of microfilms of the registers of the medieval archbishops of Armagh. We also possess a state-of-the-art microfilm reader, scanners, a photocopier and specialised surveying equipment. Computers are connected to the college server.
  • Two seminar rooms both with AV facilities, one seating an audience of about 10 and the other for up to 40

Membership and Access

The Centre’s facilities may be used by all TCD staff with an interest in medieval history, as well as the Centre’s Research Associates, all Ph.D., M. Litt. and M. Phil. students in Medieval History, or graduate students working in cognate areas. Other visitors to Dublin may also, with the permission of the Director, make use of the facilities. Recent visitors who have made use of the facilities include scholars from the US, Russia, Germany and Britain.