Bibliography
Record sources
Specific types
cartography and map-makingletters and correspondenceRecord sources: Ireland
Results (136)
Ó Macháin, Pádraig [dir.], Late medieval legal deeds in Irish, Online: Google Sites, ?–present. URL: <https://sites.google.com/site/irishlegaldeeds>
abstract:
The Late Medieval Legal Deeds in Irish project of the Department of Modern Irish, University College Cork, draws its inspiration from and seeks to build on the work of two great scholars: the late Gearóid Mac Niocaill (1932-2004), and Kenneth W. Nicholls (School of History, UCC), who is an active participant in the LMLDI research seminar. Both seminar and project are directed by Prof. Pádraig Ó Macháin.
McCafferty, John, The act book of the diocese of Armagh 1518–1522, Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2020.
abstract:
The ecclesiastical Act Book for the southern part of the diocese of Armagh covering the years 1518–1522 is a unique survival for Ireland. Covering the marital, sexual, testamentary, reputational and other squabbles of men and women living in modern Co. Louth and adjoining counties it offers a rare and vivid glimpse into the lives of ordinary individuals in early sixteenth-century Ireland. The huge wealth of place and personal names preserved in just over 140 entries give important clues as to the ethnic composition of the Pale through the proceedings of a busy and popular court which sat in Drogheda, Termonfeckin and Dundalk. This volume provides an edited text of the original Latin manuscript along with an English summary of each case. Compiled just under twenty years before Henry VIII’s break with Rome, the Act Book of Archbishop Cromer is a key source for understanding the place of the pre-reformation church in Irish society.
Tait, Clodagh, “Causes of death and cultures of care in County Cork, 1660–1720: the evidence of the Youghal parish registers”, in: John Cunningham (ed.), Early Modern Ireland and the world of medicine: practitioners, collectors and contexts, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019. 123–146.
abstract:
Very few parish registers survive from Early Modern Ireland, and those that do have rarely been systematically exploited by scholars. This chapter addresses this lacuna in the historiography of Early Modern Ireland by paying close attention to the Church of Ireland registers from Youghal, Co. Cork in the period 1660–1720. It sets out what the registers can tell us about births and deaths in the town, as well as the apparent impact of disease and epidemics in an urban setting. The chapter explores causes of death and also offers a case study of birth patterns in one family.
Rabin, Andrew, “Preventive law in early Ireland. Rereading the Additamenta in the Book of Armagh”, North American Journal of Celtic Studies 2:1 (2018): 37–55.
abstract:
This article argues that the so-called Additamenta, found on ff. 16r–18v of the Book of Armagh, may have functioned as a form of preventive law. Reading the Additamenta in this fashion suggests that the evidence they adduce to legitimize Armagh's property rights reflects those categories of claims thought most likely to prevail should the foundation's landholdings fall into dispute. As an archive of documents that both preserved and shaped institutional memory, they provided a historical frame that limited the possibility of challenges to Armagh's standing or, if those challenges did come to trial, shaped the court's perception to the foundation's benefit. Consequently, even if these documents do not necessarily reflect an ongoing charter tradition, we may still use them as case studies revealing one way in which early Irish landowners—especially those associated with ecclesiastical foundations like Armagh—utilized text and narrative to influence the progress of legal disputes.
Ellis, Steven G., and James Murray, Calendar of state papers, Ireland, Tudor period, 1509-1547, Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2017.
McInerney, Luke, “Six deeds from early seventeenth century Thomond”, Eolas: The Journal of the American Society of Irish Medieval Studies 10 (2017): 33–76.
abstract:
Presented here are six deeds that cast light on landholding and legal matters in the earldom of Thomond during the first three decades of the seventeenth century. The documents were transcribed in a form as faithful to the original texts as possible. The deeds are archived in the Inchiquin Collection at the National Library of Ireland and in the Thomond papers at Petworth House in West Sussex. At one point, they all formed part of the collection of legal documents in the hands of the O’Briens of Thomond. People and places mentioned are located within the modern boundaries of Co. Clare. Individuals alluded to, almost without exception, were members of landholding lineages — great and small — that characterized Gaelic society. The early-seventeenth century was a period of great change in the Gaelic lordships as anglicization and colonization proceeded apace across Ireland. anglicization, along with expropriation of lands, irrevocably transformed Gaelic civilization. An important agent of change was English government and legal institutions which began to replace traditional allegiances and the systems of redistributive exchange that underpinned Gaelic society during this period.
Hartland, Beth, “Administering the Irish fines, 1199–1254: the English chancery, the Dublin Exchequer and the seeking of favours”, in: David Crook, and Louise J. Wilkinson (eds), The growth of royal government under Henry III, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2015. 72–84.
Bhreathnach, Edel, “Observations on the Book of Durrow memorandum”, in: John Carey, Kevin Murray, and Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh (eds), Sacred histories: a Festschrift for Máire Herbert, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2015. 14–21.
Lash, Elliott, POMIC: The parsed Old and Middle Irish corpus. Version 0.1, Online: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, School of Celtic Studies, 2014–present. URL: <https://www.dias.ie/celt/celt-publications-2/celt-the-parsed-old-and-middle-irish-corpus-pomic/>
McInerney, Luke, “An early-seventeenth-century deed of conveyance from Co. Clare”, North Munster Antiquarian Journal 54 (2014): 73–80.
Frame, Robin, “A register of lost deeds relating to the earldom of Ulster, c.1230–1376”, in: Seán Duffy (ed.), Princes, prelates and poets in medieval Ireland: essays in honour of Katharine Simms, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2013. 85–106.
Crooks, Peter [princip. ed.], Katharine Simms, Philomena Connolly, and A. J. Otway-Ruthven, CIRCLE: a calendar of Irish chancery letters c. 1244-1509, Online: Trinity College, Dublin, 2012–present. URL: <https://chancery.tcd.ie>
abstract:
CIRCLE offers users an accessible and accurate summary in English of letters that were issued under the great seal of Ireland and enrolled in the Irish chancery rolls between the reigns of Henry III and Henry VII. [...] The original rolls of the Irish chancery were destroyed in 1922. A principal source for the reconstruction of Irish chancery letters is a Latin calendar published by the Irish Record Commissioners in 1828 under the title: Rotulorum patentium et clausorum cancellariae Hiberniae calendarium, Hen. II–Hen. VII, ed. Edward Tresham (Dublin, 1828). This 1828 calendar is referred to throughout this website as RCH. All known sources of information that supplement RCH—whether printed or in manuscript—have been collated to create CIRCLE. These sources of substitute or supplementary information are listed at the foot of each entry. Further details of how the reconstruction work was carried out are available here. CIRCLE is a calendar, which means that it offers a summary translation rather than a full diplomatic edition of each letter; consequently variant readings are not usually noted. Letters that do not have proper dating clauses have not normally been included.
Kelly, Fergus, “The recovery of stolen property: notes on legal procedure in Gaelic Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man”, in: Fiona Edmonds, and Paul Russell (eds), Tome: studies in medieval Celtic history and law in honour of Thomas Charles-Edwards, 31, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2011. 165–171.
McInerney, Luke, “A Meic Fhlannchadha fosterage document, c.1580”, North Munster Antiquarian Journal 51 (2011): 61–70.
abstract:
A deed of adoption by the Meic Fhlannchadha (McClancy) brehon family of Tradraighe, Co. Clare, is translated from Latin. The document provides details on the practice of fosterage amongst learned Gaelic families in the late sixteenth century and is reproduced in the appendices to facilitate greater interest in this oft-neglected area of research into Gaelic social organisation.
1641 Depositions, Trinity College Dublin, Online: Trinity College Dublin, 2010–present. URL: <http://1641.tcd.ie/>
abstract:
The 1641 Depositions (Trinity College Dublin, MSS 809-841) are witness testimonies mainly by Protestants, but also by some Catholics, from all social backgrounds, concerning their experiences of the 1641 Irish rebellion. The testimonies document the loss of goods, military activity, and the alleged crimes committed by the Irish insurgents, including assault, stripping, imprisonment and murder. This body of material is unparalleled anywhere in early modern Europe, and provides a unique source of information for the causes and events surrounding the 1641 rebellion and for the social, economic, cultural, religious, and political history of seventeenth-century Ireland, England and Scotland.
The 1641 Depositions Project aims to conserve, digitise, transcribe and make the depositions available online in a fully TEI compliant format. The project began in 2007 and finished in September 2010. The Ulster Depositions were published online in December 2009, see http://www.tcd.ie/history/1641 and the remaining provinces were published end September 2010. The Irish Manuscripts Commission will publish a hard copy of the 1641 Depositions in 12 volumes.
The 1641 Depositions Project aims to conserve, digitise, transcribe and make the depositions available online in a fully TEI compliant format. The project began in 2007 and finished in September 2010. The Ulster Depositions were published online in December 2009, see http://www.tcd.ie/history/1641 and the remaining provinces were published end September 2010. The Irish Manuscripts Commission will publish a hard copy of the 1641 Depositions in 12 volumes.
McInerney, Luke, “The West Clann Chuiléin lordship in 1586: evidence from a forgotten inquisition”, North Munster Antiquarian Journal 48 (2008): 33–62.
abstract:
An unpublished inquisition of the Court of Exchequer is used to shed new light on the inner workings of a sixteenth-century Gaelic lordship prior to the collapse of the Gaelic system. As a contemporary recording of native political organisation it provides valuable evidence on social hierarchies, economic organisation and place-names.
McInerney, Luke, “Clerics and clansmen: the vicarages and rectories of Tradraighe in the fifteenth century”, North Munster Antiquarian Journal 48 (2008): 1–21.
abstract:
The printed volumes of the documents known as the Papal Registers relating to Ireland for the period 1396-1521 are utilized to study the inner-working of ecclesiastical administration in Killaloe diocese during the fifteenth century. A case study is presented on a selection of parishes in, and adjacent to, the old deanery of Tradraighe with a particular focus on the Mac an Oirchinnigh (McInerney) of Tradraighe. The registers offer a valuable perspective on the role of vassal-septs at the parish level, as well as insight into the machinations of ecclesiastical administration in Gaelic dioceses.
Dumville, David N., “Charters from ‘The Book of Kells’ transcribed for James Ussher”, in: David N. Dumville, Celtic essays, 2001–2007, 2 vols, vol. 1, Aberdeen: Centre for Celtic Studies, University of Aberdeen, 2007. 233–256.
Dryburgh, Paul, and Brendan Smith, Inquisitions and extents of medieval Ireland, List and Index Society, 320, Kew, London: List and Index Society, 2007.
abstract:
This volume consists of calendars of Irish-related documents found in the series C 132-C 138 (Inquisitions Post Mortem, Henry III-Henry V), C 142 (Inquisitions Ad Quod Damnum, Henry III-Richard III) and C 145 (Miscellaneous Inquisitions, Henry III-Richard III) held by The National Archives. It also contains an extensive place and name index, and an index of jurors and subjects.
Gillespie, Raymond, “The Christ Church deeds”, in: Raymond Gillespie, and Raymond Refaussé (eds), The medieval manuscripts of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Dublin: Four Courts, 2006. 103–128.
Flanagan, Marie Therese [ed.], Irish royal charters: texts and contexts, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
abstract:
The Latin charters issued by Irish kings in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, although comparatively few in number, constitute an important body of evidence owing to the scarcity of Irish documentary sources by contrast with narrative, annalistic and literary texts. Their value is greatly enhanced by the fact that chronologically they span the traditional historiographical division between pre-Anglo-Norman and post-Anglo-Norman Ireland and in form are comparable with the charters generated by the English crown and Anglo-Norman settlers in Ireland from 1167 onwards. They therefore contribute to a more balanced assessment of Irish society on the eve on Anglo-Norman intervention in Ireland.
The context for the introduction of the Latin charter undoubtedly was the ecclesiastical reform movement that dominated western Christendom from about 1050 onwards and which began to have a discernible impact on the Irish church from no later than c.1100. All the extant Irish royal charters were issued in favour of ecclesiastical beneficiaries and were demonstrably a product of collaboration between Irish kings and reformist clergy. Irish kings, however, were not merely passive recipients of this new documentary reform. They proved adept at exploiting it as a vehicle for their self-promotion and expansion of royal authority. German imperial chancery practice, for example, provided the stylistic model for a charter issued by Diarmait Mac Carthaig, king of Desmond c.1173x7. The known involvement of Diarmait's family with the Schottenklöster of Southern Germany affords a ready explanation for what might otherwise appear to be surprising German influence. The Irish royal charters materially advance understanding of aspects of the ecclesiastical and secular politics of twelfth-century Ireland. This is the first modern edition of the texts, exploring textual transmission and authenticating criteria and providing commentary on their content and historical significance together with detailed annotations of personal and place-names.
The context for the introduction of the Latin charter undoubtedly was the ecclesiastical reform movement that dominated western Christendom from about 1050 onwards and which began to have a discernible impact on the Irish church from no later than c.1100. All the extant Irish royal charters were issued in favour of ecclesiastical beneficiaries and were demonstrably a product of collaboration between Irish kings and reformist clergy. Irish kings, however, were not merely passive recipients of this new documentary reform. They proved adept at exploiting it as a vehicle for their self-promotion and expansion of royal authority. German imperial chancery practice, for example, provided the stylistic model for a charter issued by Diarmait Mac Carthaig, king of Desmond c.1173x7. The known involvement of Diarmait's family with the Schottenklöster of Southern Germany affords a ready explanation for what might otherwise appear to be surprising German influence. The Irish royal charters materially advance understanding of aspects of the ecclesiastical and secular politics of twelfth-century Ireland. This is the first modern edition of the texts, exploring textual transmission and authenticating criteria and providing commentary on their content and historical significance together with detailed annotations of personal and place-names.
Flanagan, Marie Therese, “Irish royal charters and the Cistercian order”, in: Marie Therese Flanagan, and Judith A. Green (eds), Charters and charter scholarship in Britain and Ireland, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2005. 120–139.
Haren, Michael, “Laudabiliter: text and context”, in: Marie Therese Flanagan, and Judith A. Green (eds), Charters and charter scholarship in Britain and Ireland, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2005. 140–163.
Herbert, Máire, “Before charters? Property records in pre-Anglo-Norman Ireland”, in: Marie Therese Flanagan, and Judith A. Green (eds), Charters and charter scholarship in Britain and Ireland, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2005. 107–119.
Ó Murchú, Liam P. (ed.), Cinnlae Amhlaoibh Uí Shúileabháin: reassessments, Irish Texts Society, Subsidiary Series, 14, London: Irish Texts Society, 2004.
Dryburgh, Paul, and Brendan Smith, Handbook and select calendar of sources for medieval Ireland in the National Archives of the United Kingdom, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2004.
abstract:
The establishment of English rule in Ireland in the late 12th century involved the introduction not only of foreign settlers, but also of administrative practices based on those of England. In the 13th century a chancery, an exchequer, and courts of law centred on Dublin developed which produced written records of their operations. The fact that the lord of Ireland was also the king of England, and that every English subject in Ireland had the right to appeal directly to the king, meant that Irish affairs were also well represented in the records produced by the English government at Westminster. These two sets of records were created and kept independently by both administrations, but a series of disasters stretching from the 13th century to the 20th means that almost all of the Irish archive has been lost. Fortunately, the National Archives of the United Kingdom, based at Kew in London, continues to hold a wealth of material relating to Ireland in the medieval centuries. This book provides a guide to records which reflect many facets of this period in Irish history, including relations between natives and settlers, the church, life on the manor, trade and commerce, land-holding, Anglo-Irish relations, and the operation of the law. It should serve as the starting-point for future research into many aspects of the medieval Irish past.
Smith, Brendan, The register of Nicholas Fleming, archbishop Of Armagh, 1404–1416, Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2003.
Connolly, Philomena, Medieval record sources, Maynooth Research Guides for Irish Local History, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2002. 71 pp.
Contents: Records of central and local government; Chancery; Exchequer; Courts; Council and parliament; Local government; English official records; Ecclesiastical records; Vatican archival material; Valuations; Diocesan records; Records of parishes and chantries; Monastic records; Private records; Substitute material; Access to medieval records; Intellectual access; Physical access; The interpretation of medieval records.
abstract:
The introduction of English institutions to Ireland after the arrival of the Normans, and the close administrative ties that existed between the two countries during the rest of the middle ages resulted in a wealth of archival sources on both sides of the Irish Sea. This book serves as a practical introduction to these sources, in both manuscript and printed form, from the 12th to the 15th centuries. The institutions, central and local, which produced the records are described and the records placed in their administrative context. Advice is given on the scope and limitations of the surviving sources, and special attention is paid to the existence of substitutes for the records destroyed in 1922 in the Four Courts fire. In addition to the records of central and local government, ecclesiastical records in Ireland and abroad are dealt with, as are the private records of major Anglo-Irish families. Information is provided on the existence of guides, lists and indexes which facilitate access to unpublished material in various record repositories.
Etchingham, Colmán, and Catherine Swift, “Early Irish church organisation: the case of Drumlease and the Book of Armagh”, Breifne: Journal of Cumann Seanchas Bhreifne 9:37 (2001): 285–312.
abstract:
Were we dependent on the pre-Norman Irish annals alone, we should know nothing of the early history of the church of Drumlease, near Dromahair, Co. Leitrim. Like many of the other churches of Connacht, Drumlease suffers from the comparative neglect of the western province's early ecclesiastical history on the part of the surviving collections of annals. The ‘Patrician’ texts in the Book of Armagh, however, provide a snap-shot of Drumlease in the later seventh and eighth century, indicating that it was a church of considerable significance in north Connacht at that time. This study comprises two parts. The first, by Colmán Etchingham, introduces the references to Drumlease in the Book of Armagh and examines in detail the relevant passages of the eighth-century text known as the Additamenta. The second part, by Catherine Swift, places Tírechán's reference to Drumlease in the broader context of that seventh-century clergyman's portrayal of the Patrician churches of Connacht in general.
(source: Introduction)
Fletcher, Alan J., Drama and the performing arts in pre-Cromwellian Ireland: a repertory of sources and documents from the earliest times until c. 1642, Cambridge: Brewer, 2001.
McEnery, Michael Joseph, and Raymond Refaussé, Christ Church deeds, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000.
abstract:
When the Irish Public Record Office was destroyed by fire in 1922 one of the most important collections to be lost was the Christ Church deeds, which had been deposited in the office by the cathedral during the church's restoration in the 1870s. Before the destruction of the deeds, however, a calendar had been prepared detailing the contents of each document. This was partly published in the Reports of deputy keeper of the public records in the 1880s. This volume reprints this now unobtainable calendar and includes, for the first time, that part of the calendar dealing with the 17th century, which remained unpublished. This unique collection of deeds, which ranges from the late 12th to the early 18th centuries, casts light on every aspect of medieval and early modern Ireland.
Howlett, David [ed. and tr.], Sealed from within: self-authenticating Insular charters, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1999.
abstract:
From original manuscripts David Howlett edits, translates, and analyses twenty-four Latin charters – English, Welsh, Cornish, Irish, Scottish, and Hebridean – from the 7th century to the 15th, as monuments of thought and composition parallel to the literary and epigraphic traditions of these islands. This revolutionary analysis presents charters of local variety but underlying unity, in which complex self-authenticating mathematical structures produce works of art of astonishing and apprehensible beauty.
Mac Cuarta, Brian, “A settler’s land disputes in a Gaelic lordship: Matthew De Renzy in Delvin Mac Coghlan, 1613-18”, Studia Hibernica 30 (1998–1999): 63–88.
Kehnel, Annette, Clonmacnois: the church and lands of St. Ciarán. Change and continuity in an Irish monastic foundation (6th to 16th century), Vita Regularis: Ordnungen und Deutungen religiosen Lebens im Mittelalter. Abhandlungen, 8, Münster: LIT, 1997. 368 pp.
Universität Mannheim, Historisches Institut: <link>
Smith, Brendan, The register of Milo Sweteman, archbishop of Armagh, c.1361-1380, Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1996.
Mills, James [ed.], James F. Lydon [introd.], and Alan J. Fletcher [introd.], Account roll of the Priory of Holy Trinity, Dublin, 1337–1346, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1996.
Reprint of the original, with new introductions by James Lydon and Alan J. Fletcher.
Broun, Dauvit, The charters of Gaelic Scotland and Ireland in the early and central Middle Ages, Quiggin Pamphlets on the Sources of Mediaeval Gaelic History, 2, Cambridge: Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge, 1995. iv + 52 pp.
The Irish fiants of the Tudor sovereigns: during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Philip & Mary, and Elizabeth I, 4 vols, Dublin: Éamonn de Búrca, 1994.
Reprinted from the Reports of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records of Ireland, 1875–1890, with a new introduction by Kenneth W. Nicholls and preface by Tomás G. Ó Canann. The originals were destroyed in the Four Courts fire (1922).
Ó Riain, Pádraig, “Saints in the catalogue of bishops of the lost ‘Register of Clogher’”, Clogher Record 14:2 (1992): 66–77.
OʼDonovan, John, and Graham Mawhinney [ed.], John O'Donovan’s letters from County Londonderry. Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Londonderry: collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1834, Draperstown: Ballinascreen Historical Society, 1992.
McMahon, Theo, “Some County Monaghan extracts from the 1821 census”, Clogher Record 14:1 (1991): 92–114.
Griffiths, Margaret C., Calendar of inquisitions formerly in the office of the Chief Remembrancer of the Exchequer, Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1991.
abstract:
This important publication contains summaries of the Latin calendars of inquisitions regarding landholding and property for Co. Dublin for the period Henry VIII to William III (with one item for Henry VI), prepared by the Record Commission of 1810-1830, the originals of which perished in the destruction of the Public Record Office in 1922.
Happé, Peter, and John N. King [eds.], The vocacyon of Johan Bale, Renaissance English Text Society (7th series), 14, Binghamton, New York: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York, 1990.
Mac Niocaill, Gearóid, “The Irish ‘charters’”, in: Peter Fox (ed.), The Book of Kells: MS 58, Trinity College Library Dublin. Commentary, 3 vols, vol. 2, Lucerne: Fine Art Facsimile, 1990. 153–165.
Edwards, R. W. Dudley, and Mary OʼDowd, Sources for modern Irish history 1534–1641, Sources of History, Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Pawlisch, Hans S., Sir John Davies and the conquest of Ireland: a study in legal imperialism, New York, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Nicholls, K. W., The O Doyne (Ó Duinn) manuscript: documents relating to the family of O Doyne (Ó Duinn) from Archbishop Marsh's Library, Dublin, MS Z.4.2.19, Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1983.
abstract:
This volume showcases a series of papers, letters and documents relating to the family of O Doyne (Ó Duinn). It contains the inheritance lawsuit between Charles O Doyne and his elder brother sons of lord of Iregan. It contains much of interest to historians of late Tudor and early Stuart Ireland.
(source: Irish Manuscripts Commission)
Sharpe, Richard, “Palaeographical considerations in the study of the Patrician documents in the Book of Armagh”, Scriptorium 36:1 (1982): 3–28.
Greene, Richard Leighton, The lyrics of the Red book of Ossory, Medium Ævum Monographs, 5, Oxford: Blackwell for the Society for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature, 1974.
