Medieval History Research Centre
Collaborative Projects
The Battle of Clontarf (1014)
The Battle of Clontarf website was created for students and the public to provide access to historical and archaeological information and resources on one of the most emblematic battles in Irish history. The web pages include sections on social context and daily-life in Viking-Age Ireland; the political background and rivalries that led to the battle on Good Friday, 23 April 1014; and the key figures at the battle. Dynamic interactive maps enable exploration of viking raids and settlement development, Brian Boru’s military campaigns and what happened on Good Friday, 23 April 1014.
Project team: Professor Sean Duffy, Roman Bleier, Cherie Peters, Dr Eoin Flynn, Dr Sparky Booker, Caoimhe Whelan. High Performance Computing: Dermot Frost; Juliusz Filipowski; Paddy Doyle
Funding: Ireland’s EU structural Funds Programme (2012-13); Trinity Long Room Hub
Investigating the Book of Kells: Learning through Art and Science
The aim of the project is to share, exploit and analyse in a teaching environment the latest research into the Book of Kells, the word-famous and iconic manuscript preserved in Trinity College Dublin. This aim will be achieved through the design of two innovative modules on the Book of Kells, one offered to extramural students and the other to M.Phil students registered for programmes in arts-based disciplines, including History and History of Art. Both modules are interdisciplinary in approach and informed by the latest research which has been undertaken by art historians, botanists, chemists, computer scientists, geologists, physicists and historians, as well as by conservationists. The lectures will be delivered by experts from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. Each module will also be accompanied by a web-based tutorial package to support the lecture programme. Graduate students will also be expected to participate in inquiry-led seminar discussions; and extramural students will have a question and answer session after each lecture.
- Associated TCD Staff: David Ditchburn and Roger Stalley.
- Funding: NAIRTL (2010-11)
The Irish Battlefields Project
This ground-breaking project used a combination of historical (documentary) and archaeological (field) research to identify potential battlefield sites in Ireland. It covered the period 700-1800. The project is now completed and it is hoped that some of its findings will be published.
- Associated Research Associates: Katharine Simms, Stephen Harrison, Niav Gallagher.
- Funding: Dept of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Project managed jointly by Eneclann Ltd and Headland Ltd (2008-9)
The Irish Chancery Project
The Irish Chancery Project seeks to reconstruct the records of the medieval Irish chancery, which were destroyed by the explosion and fire at the Four Courts in 1922. In the absence of the original rolls of chancery, the project team drew on copies, antiquarian transcripts and calendars ranging in date from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries and surviving in repositories in Ireland, England and North America. The result is the Calendar of Irish Chancery Letters, c.1244–1509 (known as CIRCLE). The publication of CIRCLE in 2011, hard copies will be published by the Irish Manuscripts Commission, does much to revitalize late medieval Irish studies by providing both specialist researchers and the general public with ready access to an unparalleled source of information for the first time. The project’s ancillary publications seek to set the medieval Irish experience of colonialism in a wider comparative framework.
- Associated TCD Staff: Peter Crooks, David Ditchburn, Sean Duffy, Katharine Simms. Associated universities: Bristol, Durham, Reading, St Andrews
- Funding: British Academy; Leverhulme Trust; IRCHSS (2008-11)