Tuesday 7 October 2014

Tales of Medieval Dublin: telling our ancestors' stories

Anyone who has ever attended one of the lectures hosted by the Friends of Medieval Dublin (they're held at City Hall's Wood Quay Venue, typically on the second Tuesday of the month) will be delighted to hear that some of the stories told of the city's inhabitants have been transferred to book format.

Tales of Medieval Dublin presents fourteen of these individuals.

While written by experts and providing the most up-to-date research, these tales are written to appeal to a general audience, so anyone interested in the city’s past will enjoy them as well as learn from them. They span almost 1,000 years of Dublin’s history and trace the lives of warriors, churchmen, queens, bards and barons, as well as those who are so often ignored in the historical record: housewives, tax collectors, peasants and slaves.

See the full list below.

Edited by Sparky Booker and Cherie N. Peters, the 256-page colour illustrated book has been published in both hardback (ISBN 978-1-84682-496-8) and paperback (ISBN 978-1-84682-497-5) by Four Courts Press. It's available in good bookshops or at the publisher's website. Catalogue prices are €45 for the hardback and €24.95 for the paperback.

CONTENTS
  • The Skeleton’s Tale | Linzi Simpson (ind.)
  • The Abbot’s Tale | Seán Duffy (TCD)
  • The Slave’s Tale | Poul Holm (TCD)
  • The Mother’s Tale | Howard B. Clarke (RIA)
  • The Farmer’s Tale | Cherie N. Peters (TCD)
  • The Tax Collector’s Tale | Áine Foley (TCD)
  • The Archdeacon’s Tale | Margaret Murphy (Carlow College)
  • The Crusader’s Tale | Edward Coleman (UCD)
  • The Wife’s Tale | Gillian Kenny (TCD)
  • The Mason’s Tale | Michael O’Neill (ind.)
  • The Notary’s Tale | Caoimhe Whelan (TCD)
  • The Knight’s Tale | Sparky Booker (TCD)
  • The Man of Law’s Tale | Colm Lennon (NUIM)
  • The Poet’s Tale | Katharine Simms (TCD)