St Martin's Fair Limerick 28th -31st October 2019
Medieval Limerick – a frontier town in Europe's Wild West.
O’Brien dynasties of Limerick as Domnall Mór came to power As Domnall Mór came to power, the city of Limerick was surrounded by different O’Brien and Dál Cais groups. Domnall himself was a member of the Uí Thairdelbaig, the ruling dynasty which not only produced Brian Boru but also his most powerful successor, Muirchertach, the …
Continue reading “Domnall Mór’s enemies amongst the Gael and the Gall”
The Annals of Tigernach provide an interesting insight into Domnall Mór’s growth to power after the death of his father Toirdelbach. Under the year 1168, there are two entries which distinguish between two particular titles. Firstly Domnall Ó Briain is said to have taken ríge Tuadmuman or the kingship of north Munster (the literal meaning …
Continue reading “King Domnall Mór – leader of the Dál Cais”
This is the first of a series of blogs about Domnall Mór in honour of the new statue recently created by Will Fogarty in the grounds of St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick. I sat down to write about Domnall’s role as king and church founder but it became so disparate I have decided to separate the …
Doorway of a stave church at the University Museum, Bergen The creation of Christian dioceses in our larger Scandinavian cities is a feature of eleventh-century Irish history. It seems probable that there were Christians, including Scandinavian Christians, living in these settlements before that date although we are largely dependent on archaeology for any record of …
King John’s penny minted by Willem in Limerick. Taken from the website of the “Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum” In the data-base of portable finds kept by the British Museum, a silver penny of King John’s coinage from the Limerick mint was recorded from the Isle of Wight in 2005, bearing …
Continue reading “Money-makers, mayors and “Miniters” of early Limerick”
Lands of central Limerick, once owned by the Cistercians of Monasternenagh The walled towns of early Ireland were divided into burgage plots occupied by townspeople but in Limerick, as Brian Hodkinson has pointed out, a number of such plots were given by King John’s justiciar to men of great substance, founders of some of the …
Continue reading “Early Limerick hay-makers and sheep-shearers”
In the thirteenth century, the word constable could refer to almost any person who commanded men but it most commonly denoted an officer in command of a castle. Accounts rendered to King John for the castle garrison at Rathwire (Co. Westmeath) in 1211-1212 – in which year the costs for building the castle at Limerick …
Continue reading “The first constable of King John’s Castle, Limerick”
A late drinking horn from Þjóðminjasafn Íslands – the National Museum of Iceland. In a Middle Irish poem on the rights and duties of the king of Tara, from a collection known as Lebor na Cert or the Book of Rights, the king of fruitful Thomond is identified as flaith Luimnig or the lord of …
The Black Book of Limerick tells us that the church of St Nicholas in Limerick was in existence by the time the Normans were settling in Limerick and had taken over the town. For motives which are obscure, the Vicar of Munster, William de Burgo (married to the daughter of the last king of Limerick, …
The first Irish life of St Patrick includes a lengthy account of the saint’s activities in the lands of east Limerick and Tipperary, beginning with the tale of how he lost his tooth at Kilfeakle (Cell Fhiacal) and his conversion of the kings of Coonagh. (Among other things, Patrick turned rushes into chives to provide …
Continue reading “St Munchin, the O’Brien kings and the hills of Singland”
St Martin's Fair Limerick 28th -31st October 2019