Bibliography
Edel Bhreathnach
s. xx–xxi
Bhreathnach
Works authored
Bhreathnach, Edel, Monasticism in Ireland, AD 900–1250, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2024.
abstract:
The history of monasticism in early Ireland is dominated by its flourishing during the sixth and seventh centuries, a period dominated by Columba of Iona and Columbanus of Bobbio, and later by the ‘reform’ spearheaded by Malachy of Armagh during the twelfth century. But what of monasticism in Ireland during the intervening period? Regarded as different from ‘mainstream’ Anglo-Saxon and continental monasticism, monastic life in Ireland has not been fully understood in scholarly discussions about the existence of distinct ‘monasticisms’ throughout Christianity. The Irish sources, many written in the vernacular, are not readily accessible and are viewed as unconventional. The secularization of monasticism in Ireland has overshadowed evidence for a thriving lived monasticism. This major study concentrates on those men and women who followed a monastic life, especially between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, and who maintained a universal monastic ideology while incorporating monasticism into their own cultural environment.
abstract:
The history of monasticism in early Ireland is dominated by its flourishing during the sixth and seventh centuries, a period dominated by Columba of Iona and Columbanus of Bobbio, and later by the ‘reform’ spearheaded by Malachy of Armagh during the twelfth century. But what of monasticism in Ireland during the intervening period? Regarded as different from ‘mainstream’ Anglo-Saxon and continental monasticism, monastic life in Ireland has not been fully understood in scholarly discussions about the existence of distinct ‘monasticisms’ throughout Christianity. The Irish sources, many written in the vernacular, are not readily accessible and are viewed as unconventional. The secularization of monasticism in Ireland has overshadowed evidence for a thriving lived monasticism. This major study concentrates on those men and women who followed a monastic life, especially between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, and who maintained a universal monastic ideology while incorporating monasticism into their own cultural environment.
Bhreathnach, Edel, Ireland in the medieval world, AD 400–1000: landscape, kingship and religion, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2014. 316 pp.
abstract:
Aimed at the student and general reader, this is a study of Ireland’s people, landscape and place in the world from late antiquity to the reign of Brian Bórama. It narrates the story of Ireland’s emergence into history, using anthropological, archaeological, historical and literary evidence. Subjects covered include the king, the kingdom and the royal household; religion and customs; free and unfree classes in society; exiles and foreigners. The rural, urban, ecclesiastical, ceremonial and mythological landscapes of early medieval Ireland anchor the history of early Irish society in the rich tapestry of archaeological sites, monuments and place-names that have survived to the present. A historiography of medieval Irish studies presents the commentaries of a variety of scholars from the 17th-century Franciscan Mícheál Ó Cléirigh to Eoin Mac Neill, the founding father of modern scholarship.
(source: Four Courts Press)
abstract:
Aimed at the student and general reader, this is a study of Ireland’s people, landscape and place in the world from late antiquity to the reign of Brian Bórama. It narrates the story of Ireland’s emergence into history, using anthropological, archaeological, historical and literary evidence. Subjects covered include the king, the kingdom and the royal household; religion and customs; free and unfree classes in society; exiles and foreigners. The rural, urban, ecclesiastical, ceremonial and mythological landscapes of early medieval Ireland anchor the history of early Irish society in the rich tapestry of archaeological sites, monuments and place-names that have survived to the present. A historiography of medieval Irish studies presents the commentaries of a variety of scholars from the 17th-century Franciscan Mícheál Ó Cléirigh to Eoin Mac Neill, the founding father of modern scholarship.
(source: Four Courts Press)
Theses
Websites
Bhreathnach, Edel [project lead], and Keith Smith [project manager], Monastic Ireland, Online: The Discovery Programme, 2014–present. URL: <https://monastic.ie>.
abstract:
The aim of the Monastic Ireland project is to assemble accurate and comprehensive information relating to the history, landscape and material culture of Irish monastic houses c. 1100–1700, presented online through www.monastic.ie.
abstract:
The aim of the Monastic Ireland project is to assemble accurate and comprehensive information relating to the history, landscape and material culture of Irish monastic houses c. 1100–1700, presented online through www.monastic.ie.
Works edited
Published by Four Courts Press for the Discovery Programme.
Contributions to journals
Bhreathnach, Edel, “Archaeologists explore mythology [Review article] [Review of: Waddell, John, Myth and materiality, Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2018. Mallory, James P., In search of the Irish dreamtime: archaeology and early Irish literature, London: Thames & Hudson, 2016.]”, North American Journal of Celtic Studies 4:1 (2020): 119–124.
Bhreathnach, Edel, “Benedictine influence in Ireland in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries: a reflection”, The Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies 1 (2012): 63–91.
abstract:
This paper concentrates on two aspects of ecclesiastical reform in Ireland: the formation and layout of sedes episcopalis (diocesan centres) and the influence of clerics trained as Benedictines in England and Scotland during the same period. The contribution of the Benedictines declined as the twelfth century progressed and as other orders such as the Cistercians and Augustinians expanded their influence. Finally, the study assesses the possible contribution of continental Irish Benedictine foundations and proposes that literature produced in these monasteries should be read primarily as Benedictine narratives written in the context of continental ecclesiastical and order politics.
abstract:
This paper concentrates on two aspects of ecclesiastical reform in Ireland: the formation and layout of sedes episcopalis (diocesan centres) and the influence of clerics trained as Benedictines in England and Scotland during the same period. The contribution of the Benedictines declined as the twelfth century progressed and as other orders such as the Cistercians and Augustinians expanded their influence. Finally, the study assesses the possible contribution of continental Irish Benedictine foundations and proposes that literature produced in these monasteries should be read primarily as Benedictine narratives written in the context of continental ecclesiastical and order politics.
Contributions to edited collections or authored works
Bhreathnach, Edel, “Ireland in the age of Columbanus”, in: Eleonora Destefanis (ed.), L’eredità di san Colombano: memoria e culto attraverso il Medioevo: costruire L’Europa: Colombano e la sua eredità = L’héritage de saint Colomban: mémoire et culte au Moyen Âge: construire L’Europe: Colomban et son héritage = Saint Colombanus’ legacy: memory and cult in the Middle Ages: making Europe: Columbanus and his legacy, Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2017. 231–238.
Bhreathnach, Edel, “Tara and Cashel: manifestations of the centre of the cosmos in the north and the south”, in: Jacqueline Borsje, Ann Dooley, Séamus Mac Mathúna, and Gregory Toner (eds), Celtic cosmology: perspectives from Ireland and Scotland, 26, Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2014. 165–185.
Bhreathnach, Edel, “Kings, the kingship of Leinster and the regnal poems of laídshenchas Laigen: a reflection of dynastic politics in Leinster, 650–1150”, in: Alfred P. Smyth (ed.), Seanchas. Studies in early and medieval Irish archaeology, history and literature in honour of Francis J. Byrne, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000. 299–312.
In reference works
McGuire, James [ed.], and James Quinn [ed.], Dictionary of Irish biography, online ed., Online: Royal Irish Academy, Cambridge University Press, 2009–present. URL: <https://www.dib.ie>.
Contributions: Ua Úathgaile, Dublittir
