Dylan Bailey
dylan.bailey.2023@mumail.ie
Although I have broad research interests, I am predominantly interested in medieval Irish history, especially regarding the attitudes towards marginalised groups during this period. I am also deeply interested in how literature and other works of art can reveal past social values. I read History at the University of East Anglia for my undergraduate degree. Here I focused on the history of medieval Europe, even carrying out an optional dissertation on the evidence for religious doubt in medieval miracle collections. This inspired me to focus on medieval social history, particularly considering the experience of minorities and outsiders. Around this time, I also developed an interest in the history of Ireland, which led me to doing a Master’s in Ancient Cultures at the University of Glasgow. This Master’s allowed me to gain wider insight into how myths and legends reflect their original societies, including those from ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and medieval Ireland. In my final semester, I audited a course in Early Gaelic Literature to prepare me for my dissertation, where I compared the physical depictions of heroism between the Iliad and the Middle Gaelic Finn Cycle. My research provided some fascinating insights into the depiction and experience of disabled people in medieval Gaelic society, an area I plan to explore further at PhD level.
Romanas Bulatovas
romanas.bulatovas.2017@mumail.ie
Chelsey Collins
chelsey.collins.2017@mumail.ie
Originally at the Honors College in Mississippi University for Women, I became interested in medieval sexuality and the question of how to interpret sources that were variously bawdy, restrictive, outlandish, and virtuous into an overarching project on sexual ethics that would be critically and historically grounded. Once I traveled to Maynooth University for a year abroad, I was hooked on the early Irish sources, especially the contrast between the Old Irish penitentials, early marriage law, and courtship literature. Though these areas were so different, it occurred to me that each cared supremely about the ensuing pregnancy and legitimacy of children following an illicit sexual encounter, above any other legal or social consequence, and so I made this my starting place for my Master’s “No One Knows What Hound Whelped You on a Dung Heap: Disputed Paternity in Medieval Irish Law and Literature,” also at Maynooth University. The legal treatment of illegitimacy was locked behind an untranslated and fragmentary law tract, Bretha for Macṡlechtaib (Judgements on Categories of Sons). From edited fragments collected by Prof. Liam Breatnach, I was able to translate Macṡlechta, and through this process I gained interest in how ethical ideas travel through a great network of law and literature, as well as the later medieval glossaries, commentaries, and digests which remain crucial to deciphering fragmentary law as well as being great sources of legal adaptation in their own right. Now, in my doctoral project, I aim my findings for illegitimacy at the long held academic belief in polygyny (legal marriage to multiple wives) in early Ireland, in my project “Fragments of Sexual Ethics in Medieval Ireland: Paternity and Polygyny in Bretha for Macslechtaib and Various Laws of the Adaltrach.”
Benedetta d’Antuono
benedetta.dantuono.2022@mumail.ie
I completed a BA in Foreign Languages and Literatures (English and French) at the University of Milan (2020) and the University of Warwick (Erasmus+). I subsequently obtained an MA in Philology and Editing at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (2022) and Maynooth University (Visiting Student), where I attended the MA in Medieval Irish Studies. During my academic path, I specialised in the Celtic and Germanic traditions, writing an MA thesis on the late-medieval Irish translation of the Middle English romance Guy of Warwick (Beathadh Sir Gui o Bharbhuic) (TCD MS 1298). In my current doctoral studies at Maynooth University, I am expanding the analysis of the miscellaneous TCD MS 1298 by addressing selected texts: the late-medieval Irish translations Stair Ercuil ocus a Bás, Beathadh Sir Gui o Bharbhuic, Bethadh Bibuis o Hamtuir, Stair Fortibrais and the Irish romantic tale Stair Nuadat Find Femin. By adopting the method of ‘Descriptive Translation Studies’, I intend to shed new light on the social, cultural, and historical factors governing the translation process and on the intertextual connections between the translated works and the native tale. My research interests encompass medieval Irish, English, Old Norse, French, and Latin language and literature, translation literature, textual criticism, manuscript studies, and digital editing.
Tiago de Oliveira Veloso Silva
tiago.deoliveiravelososilva.2023@mumail.ie
After completing my BA in History at Universidade de Brasília (Brazil) in 2017, I started my MA in 2018 at the same university and was awarded a CAPES Scholarship. During my MA, also in History, I analyzed the production and use of two medieval bestiaries of the XIIth century, with a special focus on the patronage of both manuscripts. My current PhD project is titled “Power and Patronage: Female Patronage of the Arrouaisian Order at Clonard in the XIIth Century” (I promise to find a shorter title!) and is part of the SFI-IRC project “Power and Patronage in medieval Ireland: Clonard from the sixth to twelfth centuries” led by Dr. Niamh Wycherley. In this project, I will investigate female participation and the exercise of power through patronage involved in the creation of an Arrouaisian nunnery at Clonard. I am currently supervised by Dr. Niamh Wycherley and Dr. Elizabeth Boyle. My current research interests are patronage, power dynamics, manuscript studies and historiography.
Piero Andres Fagandini Elorrieta
ukfagandini@gmail.com
After completing my BSc (Chilean Navy) and also two Postgraduate Diplomas in History (Adolfo Ibañez University, Chile), I went to the University of Salamanca (Spain) to start my MA in Advanced Studies and Research in History, with a specialty in Medieval History, focused on Societies, Powers and Identities. I graduated in July 2021. As a PhD Student in Early Irish at Maynooth University, my main research interests are the cultural, religious and intellectual history of Britain and Ireland, focused on the conversion process from paganism to Christianity in Northumbria (Bernicia) during the early 7th until mid 8th centuries, bearing in mind the Irish Christian legacy, especially with St. Columba of Iona and St. Aidan of Lindisfarne.
Francesco Felici
Email: francesco.felici.2019@mumail.ie
Mairead Finnegan
mairead.finnegan.2013@mumail.ie
Having completed my BA and MA, I commenced my PhD in Medieval Irish Studies at Maynooth in 2020. My research interest is Irish dress in the late Middle Ages; however, it is also my hope to delve into how dress and clothing could reinforce or subvert ideas of identity, including those of ethnicity, status and gender. Apart from my current research, in the past I have found employment at sites of historical significance in Ireland and Scotland, such as Newgrange (OPW), the GPO Museum, and Iona Abbey (Historic Environment Scotland).
Publication
Mairéad Finnegan. (2020) ‘The Edenderry museum of Irish antiquities’. In Reilly, C. (eds) Offaly Heritage Vol. 11, Tullamore, pp. 258-62.
Truc Ha Nguyen
truc.nguyen.2019@mumail.ie
Short Biography:
After gaining my BASc in Radiation Therapy (2010) at the University of Sydney, I worked as a radiation therapist in Tasmania, Australia for a year. I then decided to pursue my interest in early Irish language and literature and completed a BA in Celtic Studies (2015) at the University of Sydney and an MA in Early Irish (2017) at Trinity College Dublin. For my PhD at Maynooth, I plan to edit the Middle Irish text Airec Menman Uraird Coisse. My research interests are in textual criticism, Old and Middle Irish language and literature and manuscript studies.
Lydia Hursh
lydia.hursh.2022@mumail.ie
I graduated with a BA in European History, with minors in Classics and English, from Union College (Schenectady, NY) in 2021. During a term abroad to NUI Galway in 2019, I initially encountered Medieval Irish Studies and fell in love with the discipline. I subsequently obtained an MA in Medieval Irish Studies from Maynooth University, graduating in 2022, where I wrote on three tochmarca viewed through a socio-legal framework in my dissertation, titled “Autonomy and Consent in Early Medieval Irish Royal Literary Women’s Marriages: A Case Study.” My PhD research seeks to expand on the findings of my MA thesis, with an increased focus on the use of speech in the various literatures under investigation. Beyond the obvious focus on early medieval Irish literature, my research interests also include gender and sexuality studies, religious studies, socio-linguistics, and medieval Irish law.
Emer Kavanagh
emer.kavanagh.2015@mumail.ie
I completed my BA in History and Medieval Celtic Studies at Maynooth University before starting my MA in Medieval Celtic Studies at Maynooth. Ever keen to branch out, and see and experience more of the world, I am currently undertaking a PhD in Medieval Celtic Studies in Maynooth University. My research project, which is funded by an Irish Research Council - Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship, is examining aspects of magic and the supernatural in medieval Ireland and is probably less interesting than it sounds.
Victoria Krivoshchekova
viktoriia.krivoschchekova.2019@mumail.ie
I completed my BA in History at a fine Russian institution called Higher School of Economics (they don’t only teach economics there!) and did my Masters in Medieval Studies at Central European University in Budapest. All throughout this academic odyssey, now including my doctoral programme in Maynooth, my research area has been the intellectual history of early medieval Ireland. My current project is centered around the different ways in which early Irish texts, both Hiberno-Latin and Old Irish, express such a complex but fascinating phenomenon as the human mind.
Seungyeon Lee
seungyeon.lee.2022@mumail.ie
I am a recipient of John & Hume Doctoral Award (Fee waiver) and my research focus is a comparative study based on the Cailleach and Grandmother Seolmundae from Ireland and Korea from a gender studies perspective. Before joining the Early Irish department at Maynooth University, I completed my MA in Gender and Women’s Studies at Trinity College Dublin; my MA thesis, “The Origins of Lughnasadh Festival in Gender Perspective”, investigated cultural phenomena and human behaviour, applying ritual theory, gender theory, post-structuralism theory, and psychoanalysis to surviving sources on the festival of Lughansadh. I used the folklore traditions of Lughnasadh collected by Máire MacNeil in the twentieth century to reflect modern beliefs and practices. I discovered comparable practices in Korean folklore literature in Korea, and I became passionate about studying comparative literature between the two countries. Prior to beginning my BA, I won an excellence prize from The 32nd Manhae Literary Contest in South Korea. My submission criticised inequality in Korean society through a young woman’s narration. It motivated me to pursue my BA in Creative Writing at Daejin University in Korea. As you can see in my bio, I am interested in unearthing untold people’s stories/history and contributing my research to our society.
Gearóid Ó Conchubhair
gearoid.oconchubhair.2015@mumail.ie
Is Déiseach mé, as Sliabh (Geal) gCua (na Féile) in Iarthar Phort Láirge ó thaobh m’athar de; áit a mbíodh ina Gaeltacht suas go lár an chéid seo caite. D’fhoghlaim mé Gaeilge ón gcliabhán ó mháthair mo mháthar, Corcaíoch a raibh ina múinteoir bunscoile. Fréamh na Gaeilge ar an dá thaobh den fhine.
Bhain mé bunchéim amach i Luath agus Nua-Ghaeilge ó Choláiste na Tríonóide. Tar éis bliana ag múineadh Gaeilge i meánscoileanna, bhain mé an ATO amach ó Choláiste na Tríonóide freisin. Anall go COBÁC ansin, áit ar bhain mé MA – Scríobh agus Cumarsáid na Gaeilge aisti. I ngeall ar mo dhíograis chun teagaisc, bhain mé Dioplóma i Múineadh na Gaeilge do Dhaoine Fásta ó Ollscoil Mhá Nuad amach. I láthair na huaire, is mac léinn dochtúireachta i Roinn na Sean-Ghaeilge in Ollscoil Mhá Nuad mé.
Tá tréimhsí gairme caite agam mar mhúinteoir meánscoile, teagascóir ollscoile agus mar thaighdeoir i mBrainse na Logainmneacha agus Fiontar, OCBÁC.
Tá suim ar leith agam i sanasaíocht na bhfocal Gaeilge; go háirithe i bhfocail atá aduain agus annamh, chomh maith le cúrsaí foclóireachta. Cuireann leaganacha ársa den Ghaeilge iontas orm, amhail Gaeilge Chianach. Airím go bhfuil forgla an Léinn Ghaelaigh agam leis an Luath agus Nua-Ghaeilge ar scáth a chéile.
River Tabor
river.tabor.2022@mumail.ie
I graduated from Bard College Berlin with a degree in Arts and Aesthetics, writing my undergraduate thesis on a medieval application of the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk through an examination of Dante’s Divina Commedia and Straßburg Cathedral. I received my Masters from Maynooth University in Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Thought, writing on historical-semiotic objects. I’m currently working on my PhD at Maynooth University, writing on Birds in Medieval Ireland and Wales from 400-1400. My research interests are primarily in the field of ecological history, but I have a passion for medieval theology. Additionally, I am cofounder and Creative Director of a small publishing house called Poet Republik, which is based in Berlin, Germany.