Medieval Ireland

Terminology is sometimes problematic in the study of medieval religious communal life and its material remains in Ireland, especially in the period before 1100. The erstwhile assumption of scholars that all ecclesiastical sites of the early Christian period, up to and including the age of Viking incursions, were monastic has given way in recent years […]

He was a descendant of an old ecclesiastical family from County Laois, who were the hereditary comarbai of Colum moccu Lofgse, sixth-century founder of the monastery of Tfr da Glas (or Terryglass) in County Tipperary, and friend of Colum Cille. Aed was one of the principal compilers and scribes of the great twelfth-century literary-historical compendium, […]

Aes Dana (literally, "the people of skill, craft") is a collective term which identifies the practitioners of certain professions held in high esteem in medieval Ireland, while also distinguishing them from the farming community (aes trebtha). The aes dana comprised professions involving not only skills of artisanship, but also speech and knowledge. Examples of such […]

In medieval Irish literary terminology, the word aided refers to a tale in prose or prosimetrum that relates the violent demise of a hero, king, or poet. Like the Comperta, Echtrai, and Immrama, it belongs to a system of nineteen tale-types or general topics, which medieval Irish scholars used as a means of classifying much […]

Ailech, or the Grianan of Ailech, was the caput, or principal royal seat of the early medieval Northern Ui Neill kings of Cenel nEogain, until they moved their headquarters to Tulach Oc in the kingdom of Airgialla at the beginning of the eleventh century. The place-name Ailech was also used as the distinguishing sobriquet of […]