The Irish / Scottish World in the Middle Ages

18 September 2015, Trinity College, Dublin

Runs to 19 September 2015

The 2nd Trinity Medieval Ireland Symposium marking the 700th anniversary of the Bruce Invasion of Ireland (1315–1318) will take place on Friday 18 and Saturday 19 September 2015 at Thomas Davis Theatre (Room 2043, Arts Building), Trinity College Dublin.

Admission Free   •   All Welcome

Speakers include:

Dauvit Broun • Michael Brown • Thomas Owen Clancy • Seán Duffy • Robin Frame • Benjamin Hudson • Martin Macgregor • Bernard Meehan • Thomas O’Loughlin • R. Andrew McDonald • Michael Penman • Katharine Simms • Alex Woolf

Register here:

Further information:

The full symposium programme is available to download here.

E:            medieval.ireland.symposium@gmail.com

T:            00 353 1 896 1791

Conference overview:

Few peoples have as much in common as the Irish and the Scots. The very name ‘Scotland’ – from Scotia, the ‘land of the Scoti’ – is an ever-present reminder of that connection, because, in the Latin of the early Middle Ages, a Scotus was an Irishman, and the homeland of the Scoti was Ireland. That the name came to be applied to the northern part of Britain is testament to the strength of Irish influence there, which this Symposium explores.

Do the origins of modern Scotland lie in Ireland? To what extent did the legacy of Colum Cille of Iona define relations between the two regions – in political, ecclesiastical, literary and artistic terms? Is the Book of Kells ‘Irish’ or ‘Scottish’? What was the impact of Viking and then Anglo-Norman attempts at conquest? Did contacts intensify with the recruitment of Hebridean galloglass by the chieftains of Gaelic Ulster and elsewhere or were ancient bonds on the wane as the Middle Ages drew to a close? These are some of the questions this Symposium of leading experts seeks to answer.

Keynote Address, Friday 18 September at 7 pm

The keynote address by Professor Dauvit Broun will pose the question: ‘Two countries, one people? Conceptualising the Irish dimension in Scottish history’. Dauvit Broun is Professor of Scottish History at the University of Glasgow and is among the foremost Scottish historians of his generation. He is author of The Irish Identity of the kingdom of the Scots (1999) and Scottish Independence and the Idea of Britain from the Picts to Alexander III (2007). He is also Principal Investigator for the People of Medieval Scotland project (www.poms.ac.uk).

DOWNLOAD THE FULL PROGRAMME