What a sweep of Irish history to take in on an amble around the National Museum at Collins Barracks today: a patchwork quilt made by a 19th-century soldier; the Noble Call speech dress as worn by Panti Bliss, Queen of Ireland; photos of death and its aftermath during the War of Independence & the Civil War; and the gun-smuggling yacht "Asgard."
All changed in its turn.
I love the early 20th century. postcards I come across when researching #Premonstratensian houses—they show you #medieval architecture as it was before the devastation of the world wars, but also give you fleeting glimpses of the lives lived in these places. A girl holding her dog, a heaped hayrick, a cluster of schoolboys...
Coming across a 15th-century nun called "Catherine van Holy" seems like peak nominative determinism. What else could she have done?
I'm fascinated by the thoughts of the kind of conservatorial know-how—and nerves!—that you'd need to figure out how to remove the yolk from a centuries-old egg without shattering it.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-68247184
This week's top research frustration is a tie between:
• the scholar writing in French who unremarked translated all Czech article titles/journal names into German, causing quasi-ghost citations
• the number of library catalogue "permalinks" I'd carefully saved that had broken within 2 years.
This week's top research achievement:
• Submitting a journal article I've been working on for quite a while. Fingers crossed! 🤞
Lá 'le Bríde shona daoibh! Happy St Brigit's Day, the first day of spring in Ireland.
For the day that's in it, here's an image of Brigit's sacred fire at Kildare from Gerald of Wales' Topographia Hiberniae. It was taboo in the Middle Ages for men to approach it, and the foolish one who tried was inflicted with such an unquenchable thirst that he drank so much from a nearby river that he burst.
Yikes.
BL Royal MS 13 B VIII, fol. 23v
I wish I were able to write my research notes so consistently and with such flourishes.
(Nancy, Bibliothèque Stanislas, MS 992, vol. 4)
I'm sure that John de Courcy would be glad to know that, all these centuries later, his "discovery" of "the body of St Brigid" in 1186 is still being framed as a straightforward historical fact by Ireland's national broadcaster.
Well, if he knew what a national broadcaster was, at least.
https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2024/0128/1429015-brigid-kildare-relics/
The antiquarian scholar whose research notes I'm going through left behind lots of fun little bonus materials to discover—like his own wax impressions of the seals attached to the originals of the documents he was copying. Now 300+ years old and very fragile.
(Nancy, Bibliothèque Stanislas, MS 994)
I've made some updates to my prosopographical database of #medieval #Premonstratensian women—it now includes records for more than 1600 women across various parts of western and central Europe who were members of the order in some capacity, 12th-17th centuries.
Passing along word of this exciting #medieval-focused Digital Humanities Summer Institute taking place in Vercelli, Italy, June 16-22. It's organised by Videntes: A Multispectral Imaging Collective.
Submit applications via this form by Feb. 15: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1fDQ5xMKmiRCAaKOXCavRbZAmJUtryC9PJtHvFE5sZzk/viewform
For further info, see the website: https://videntesmsi.com
When your mam yells down the hallway to "Come here, quick, quick!" and you think someone's hurt or dead—but she just wanted you to see that the nun who used to teach you Civics in secondary school is on RTÉ's afternoon show talking about the holy well of St Brigit in Kildare.
My blood pressure.
"I know the Omari Mosque as a building that embodies the history of Gaza itself – as a site of frequent destruction, but also of resilience and renewal. While narratives about Gaza often center on war and conflict, Gaza’s rich history and pluralistic identity as expressed through its cultural heritage equally deserve to be known."
The 13th-century castle in Limerick, looking well in the winter sunshine.
I guess for marketing reasons it’s promoted as King John’s Castle—since he ordered it to be built, and many people probably know Peter Ustinov’s plummy “Ah! Mummy!” turn in Disney’s “Robin Hood”—but not sure I’d highlight a link to such a dick, myself.
Nothing like a poke around a 12th-c. cathedral on a crisp, bright Irish January day.
Per longstanding tradition (so in terms of historical sources: 🤷🏻♀️), the cathedral of St Mary, Limerick, incorporates part of the royal palace of the kings of Munster and stands on the site of the Viking Thingmoot.
A brief #medieval side-trip on a gloomy January day: Carlow Castle. It was built by William Marshal, and for a brief period in the 14th century was the administrative capital of Ireland.
Not looking too bad for a building with no foundations and which was partly blown up in the 19th century!
