Biography

In 2001 I completed a BA in Early Irish and History at MaynoothbUniversity, where I continued with a PhD in Early Irish (2006). I subsequently carried out postdoctoral work (2006-2009) as a research assistant on the IRC funded Monasticon Hibernicum project and as an O’Donovan Scholar in the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

From 2010 to 2017 I was Principal Investigator on the Ogham in 3D project based at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, funded (2012-2015) by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in collaboration with the National Monuments Service and the Discovery Programme. I returned to Maynooth University and the Department of Early Irish in 2019 as an occasional lecturer and as a postdoctoral researcher on the Chronologicon Hibernicum project funded by the European Research Council. From May-August 2021 I was Co Investigator (with PI Prof. David Stifter) on another digital project (EMILI - Early Medieval Irish Latinate Inscriptions) funded by a RIA Nowlan Digitisation Grant 2021.

From August 2021 to July 2024, I was the Irish postdoctoral researcher on the collaborative OG(H)AM project between Maynooth University and the University of Glasgow, funded jointly by the IRC and AHRC.

I am currently Principal Investigator on the IRC-funded Pathway project: EMISoS (Early Medieval Irish Scripts on Stone) Dec 2023 - Nov 2027

Research Interests

Early medieval Irish language, archaeology, history and literature.

Earliest writing in Ireland: Ogham and Latin alphabet inscriptions, palaeogrraphy and language/cultural contact with early medieval Britain.

Digital epigraphy and digital imaging (including 3d imaging) of cultural heritage for education and research.

Research Projects

Title Role Description Start date End date Amount
Early Medieval Irish Scripts on Stone - the origins and early development of Irish epigraphic culture PI 01/12/2023 30/11/2027 523438
OG(H)AM - Harnessing digital technologies to transform understanding of ogham writing, from the 4th century to the 21st Postdoctoral Researcher 01/08/2021 31/07/2024
EMILI - Early Medieval Irish Latinate Inscriptons Co-Investigator 01/05/2021 31/08/2021
Chronologicon Hibernicum Postdoctoral Researcher 'A Probabilistic Chronological Framework for Dating Early Irish Language Developments and Literature', funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme 01/09/2019 30/04/2021
Ogham in 3D Principal Investigator A project to build an online corpus of Irish ogham inscriptions, including 3d models of the stones where possible 01/01/2010 30/09/2017
Monasticon Hibernicum Research Assistant An online database of early Christian ecclesiastical settlement in Ireland 5th to 12th centuries (https://monasticon.celt.dias.ie/) 01/06/2006 31/07/2009

Book

Year Publication
2021 Nora White (2021) Our Ancient Landscapes: Ogham Stone in Ireland. Kilkenny: Heritage Council of Ireland. [Link]
2006 Nora White (2006) Compert Mongáin and Three Other Early Mongán tales: A Critical Edition with Introduction, Translation, Textual Notes, Bibliography and Vocabulary. Maynooth: Maynooth Medieval Irish Texts.

Book Chapter

Year Publication
2023 David Stifter; Nora White (2023) '‘Early Literacy and Multilingualism in Ireland and Britain' in Languages and Communities in the Late-Roman and Post-Imperial Western Provinces' In: Languages and Communities in the Late-Roman and Post-Imperial Western Provinces. Oxford : Oxford University Press. [Link] https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198888956.003.0008
2020 Nora White (2020) ''Ogham in 3D and community participation'' In: Partnership & Participation: Community Archaeology in Ireland. Dublin : Wordwell.
2005 S. Duffy (ed.) (2005) 'Contributions on ‘Comperta’ and ‘Fíachnae Mac Báetáin’' In: Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia. New York and London : Routledge.

Online Database

Year Publication
2022 Nora White, David Stifter and Jef Bucas (2022) EMILI: Early Medieval Irish Latinate Inscriptions. [Online Database] [Link]
2021 David Stier, Bernhard Bauer, Elliott Lash, Fangzhe Qiu, Nora White et al (2021) CorPH ‒ Corpus Palaeohibernicum (database and website of the ChronHib project). [Online Database]
2013 Nora White and Jean-François Bucas (2013) Ogham in 3D. [Online Database] [Link]
2009 Ailbhe MacShamhráin, Aidan Breen and Nora White (2009) Monastcon Hibernicum - Early Christan ecclesiastcal settlement in Ireland 5th to 12th centuries. [Online Database] [Link]

Peer Reviewed Journal

Year Publication
2022 David Stier, Fangzhe Qiu, Marco A. Aquino-Lóppez, Bernhard Bauer, Elliott Lash, Nora White (2022) '‘Strategies in tracing linguistc variaton in a corpus of Old Irish texts (CorPH)’'. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 27 (4). [Link] https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.22018.sti
2020 Mary Cahill and Nora White (2020) ''A tale of two lost lunulae – one with its ogham story to tell''. The Journal of Irish Archaeology, Vol. 29 . [Link]
2016 Nora White (2016) '‘Ogham stones from a souterrain in Rathkenny, Co. Kerry’'. Celtica, 28 :208-216. https://dair.dias.ie/999/
2015 Nora White (2015) '‘Ogham in 3D: Digitzing a unique aspect of Ireland’s cultural heritage’'. BREAC: A Digital Journal of Irish Studies, . [Link]
2010 Nora White and Fergus Kelly (2010) '‘The Ogham in 3D Pilot Project: a report on work in progress’'. Celtica, 26 :200-204. https://dair.dias.ie/993/

Other Journal

Year Publication
2024 Nora White (2024) 'Report on a new digital epigraphy project: EMILI' Runes:et:al, 1 . [Link] [DOI]
2018 N. White, I. Bennett and G. Devlin (2018) ''Helping the stones to speak: the Corca Dhuibhne 3d community project'' Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society, 17 .
2015 N. White, F. Moore, R. Shaw and G. Devlin (2015) '‘Ogham preserved digitally – 3D technology for a 3D script’' Archaeology Ireland, 29 .

Conference Contribution

Year Publication
2021 Nora White (2021) Workshop 3 of the AHRC-IRC funded Digital Gaelic Network Exploring text: Revealing hidden heritage through online resources Online (Cork), .
2021 Fangzhe Qiu and Nora White (2021) Corpus Linguistics International Conference Strategies in tracing linguistic variations in the Corpus of Old Irish texts (CorPH) University of Limerick and Mary Immaculate College, .
2021 Nora White (2021) International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo) The Digital Middle Ages in Ireland and Beyond Kalamazoo, Michigan, US, .
2019 Nora White (2019) Digitization of Carved/Sculptured Stones and Rock Art – Projects and Approaches Ogham in 3D - digitising the earliest writing in Ireland Visby, Gotland, Sweden, .
Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2024) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.

Professional Associations

Description Function From / To
Group for the Study of Irish Historic Settlement Member -
American Society for Irish Medieval Studies Philologgy Representative 01/01/2017 - 01/01/2019
Ogham Studies Network Founding member 11/03/2015 -
International Research Network: Runes, Monuments and Memorial Carvings Member -
Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Member -

Honors and Awards

Date Title Awarding Body
01/08/2020 National Heritage Week Award Heritage Council of Ireland

Employment

Employer Position From / To
Maynooth University, Department of Early Irish Senior Postdoctoral researcher 01/05/2021 - 31/08/2021
Maynooth University, Department of Early Irish Senior Postdoctoral Researcher 01/08/2021 - 31/07/2024
Queens University Belfast Network Administrator 03/08/2020 - 30/09/2021
Maynooth University Senior Postdoctoral Resaercher 23/09/2019 - 30/04/2021
Maynooth University Occasional lecturer in Early Irish 23/09/2019 -
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies Principal Investigator Ogham in 3D Project 01/10/2009 - 30/09/2017
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies Postdoctoral O'Donovan Scholar 01/10/2006 - 30/09/2009

Education

Start date Institution Qualification Subject
Maynooth University PhD Early Irish
Maynooth University BA Early Irish and History

Other Activities

Description
Founding member of the Epigraphy.info Global Exchange Working Group
Invited member of the steering committee of DAEICS (Digital Atlas of Early Irish Carved Stones) Project (IRC COALESCE INSTAR+ award), led by Tomás Ó Carragáin, University College Cork
Co-chair and member of EDAG (EpiDoc Action Group), a small group of encoders and developers from the EpiDoc community who currently meet approximately once a month to discuss progress and plans for EpiDoc Guidelines, Schema, Stylesheets and training resources

Consultancy

Client Description
National Monuments Service Updating ogham records for the Archaeological Survey of Ireland

Outreach Activities

Organisation Type Description
Heritage Council of Ireland Civic Society Heritage in Schools panelist [Link]
Kilkenny County Council Heritage Office Civic Society Heritage Council of Ireland and Kilkenny County Council Heritage Office 2020 grant for Kilkenny Ogham Project
Wicklow County Council Heritage Office Civic Society Creative ogham Wicklow Project and Ogham Tree Trail with sculptor Seighean Ó Draoi and Roundwood Men’s Shed (Funded by Creative Wicklow Grant Scheme 2018) https://heritage.wicklowheritage.org/places/roundwood/creative_ogham_wicklow_project
Mayo County Council Civic Society Heritage Council of Ireland and Mayo County Council Heritage Office 2022 grant for Mayo Ogham Project

Teaching Interests

Early medieval Irish language, history, literature and archaeology

External Collaborators

Name Role Country
Discovery Programme
National Museum of Ireland
National Monuments Service