Luke McInerney
Luke McInerney is an independent researcher with a particular focus on the late medieval history of Gaelic Ireland. His ancillary interests include the economic and social structure of medieval lordships in Ireland; the medieval Gaelic church; and the role and function of the learned class in Gaelic Ireland.
Many of his key publications can be found in the issues of the 'North Munster Antiquarian Journal'; 'The Other Clare'; 'Archivium Hibernicum', 'Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland ', 'Seanchas Ardmhacha' and Studia Hibernica.
His book on the links between the Gaelic learned class and medieval Irish church was published in April 2014 by Four Courts Press (Dublin).
In addition to his focus on Irish medieval history, he has a general interest in Eastern and Central European political history and contemporary economics, and also the history of early modern empire. He has worked in Ukraine and Russia and frequently travels to Eastern and Central Europe, as well as Ireland.
His academic background is a Masters of International Politics (by thesis); Honours Degree in Public Policy (economics and public policy making) and an undergraduate BA in political science from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has held positions at the Australian Federal Treasury in Canberra (2004-8); HM Treasury at Westminster, London, (2008-10); the Legal Services Board in London (2010-14); the Civil Aviation Authority (2015-2018) in London, and at the Central Bank of Ireland. He currently lives in Dublin and works in banking.
Many of his key publications can be found in the issues of the 'North Munster Antiquarian Journal'; 'The Other Clare'; 'Archivium Hibernicum', 'Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland ', 'Seanchas Ardmhacha' and Studia Hibernica.
His book on the links between the Gaelic learned class and medieval Irish church was published in April 2014 by Four Courts Press (Dublin).
In addition to his focus on Irish medieval history, he has a general interest in Eastern and Central European political history and contemporary economics, and also the history of early modern empire. He has worked in Ukraine and Russia and frequently travels to Eastern and Central Europe, as well as Ireland.
His academic background is a Masters of International Politics (by thesis); Honours Degree in Public Policy (economics and public policy making) and an undergraduate BA in political science from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has held positions at the Australian Federal Treasury in Canberra (2004-8); HM Treasury at Westminster, London, (2008-10); the Legal Services Board in London (2010-14); the Civil Aviation Authority (2015-2018) in London, and at the Central Bank of Ireland. He currently lives in Dublin and works in banking.
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NEWS by Luke McInerney
Much new detail can be harvested concerning the activities of learned Gaelic families, Irish marriage customs, place names and much else besides in seventeenth-century Ireland. The writings of these two clerics also provide a fascinating portrait of Irish clerics and their émigré networks at a time when the two traditions, which each claimed to represent – Gaelic-Irish and Old-English – were being supplanted by a different élite in Ireland, the New English. The book can be purchased via Cork University Press at this link: https://www.corkuniversitypress.com/Culture-Contention-and-Identity-17Century-Ireland-p/9781782055075.htm
The review appeared in vol.15 (2015) of the Australasian Journal of Irish Studies.
Books by Luke McInerney
The first volume in this series, Gaelic Ireland (c. 600–c. 1700) politics, culture and landscapes, edited by Dr Katharine Simms (Wordwell, 2013), was the fruit of a competition initiated by the Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains, with the object of both encouraging research into Gaelic Ireland among postgraduate historians, and of reaping the harvest of independent researchers within the bounds of an accessible, academic publication. The second volume, titled Politics, kinship and culture in Gaelic Ireland c. 1100–c. 1690, followed suit in 2018, taking as its core theme culture and kinship of the later medieval period.
The continuance of the competition and the appearance of this third anthology, edited by Luke McInerney and Dr Katharine Simms, under the joint sponsorship of the Clans of Ireland and Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains, stands testament to the success of the original project and the wide appeal of Gaelic history and culture. The essay competition continues to this day, and it is hoped that it helps foster academic interest in this fascinating period of Irish history among new generations of historians and independent scholars.
Available to order at this link: https://wordwellbooks.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1997&search=Gaelic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R_YOtxnUtc&feature=youtu.be
*This book is now released and available for purchase: http://www.fourcourtspress.ie/product.php?intProductID=1132 "
Papers by Luke McInerney
Cabhail Bhaile Uí Chondhuibh appears to represent a late-medieval fortified dwelling associated with the Ó Conduibh lineage of the Burren. The Ó Conduibh name (altn. Ó Conbhaigh or Ó Connmhaigh, anglice O’Conway) achieved renown in the medieval annals as bearers of the name were skilled musicians attached to the ruling Gaelic lineages of Corcomroe.
The Uí Chondhuibh emerge in the mid-fourteenth century as professional practitioners of music and they continued to cultivate this art well into the sixteenth century. This contrasts with other learned kindreds from Corcomroe such as the Clann Chruitín (McCurtins) musicians and historians at Kilmacrehy and the Meic Fhlannchadha (McClancys) law-brehons at Tuath Ghlae (Killilagh). Another local learned kindred, the Uí Dhuibhdhábhoireann lawyer-jurists, are first attested as ollamhain of Corcomroe in brehon law in 1364, and had their law school at Cahermacnaughten, some three kilometres from Cabhail Bhaile Uí Chondhuibh. The earliest reference in the annals to the Uí Chondhuibh pre-date almost all subsequent references to these professional learned kindreds, and they are the only learned family from Corcomroe who are accorded attention in the Thomond-centric fourteenth-century saga-text, the Caithréim Thoirdhealbhaigh.
A new discovery of a possible fortified house site of this learned family throws new light on the materality and dwelling-places of An t-Aos Dána (the Gaelic learned class). Furthermore, research has unveiled significant links between the Uí Chondhuibh and the late medieval church, including a speculative identification of the place(s) of their professional scholarship in the Burren region of north Co. Clare.
This perception drew on his self-conscious view that his learning derived from the curriculum of the professional bardic schools which, in the west of Ireland, operated up to the mid-seventeenth century. He saw himself as a representative of what we might term the classical Gaelic literary tradition. The fact that the family to whom he belonged, the Clann Chruitín, were hereditary seanchaidhthe with medieval origins, meant that he saw himself as a descendant of a time-honoured learned line.
Much new detail can be harvested concerning the activities of learned Gaelic families, Irish marriage customs, place names and much else besides in seventeenth-century Ireland. The writings of these two clerics also provide a fascinating portrait of Irish clerics and their émigré networks at a time when the two traditions, which each claimed to represent – Gaelic-Irish and Old-English – were being supplanted by a different élite in Ireland, the New English. The book can be purchased via Cork University Press at this link: https://www.corkuniversitypress.com/Culture-Contention-and-Identity-17Century-Ireland-p/9781782055075.htm
The review appeared in vol.15 (2015) of the Australasian Journal of Irish Studies.
The first volume in this series, Gaelic Ireland (c. 600–c. 1700) politics, culture and landscapes, edited by Dr Katharine Simms (Wordwell, 2013), was the fruit of a competition initiated by the Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains, with the object of both encouraging research into Gaelic Ireland among postgraduate historians, and of reaping the harvest of independent researchers within the bounds of an accessible, academic publication. The second volume, titled Politics, kinship and culture in Gaelic Ireland c. 1100–c. 1690, followed suit in 2018, taking as its core theme culture and kinship of the later medieval period.
The continuance of the competition and the appearance of this third anthology, edited by Luke McInerney and Dr Katharine Simms, under the joint sponsorship of the Clans of Ireland and Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains, stands testament to the success of the original project and the wide appeal of Gaelic history and culture. The essay competition continues to this day, and it is hoped that it helps foster academic interest in this fascinating period of Irish history among new generations of historians and independent scholars.
Available to order at this link: https://wordwellbooks.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1997&search=Gaelic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R_YOtxnUtc&feature=youtu.be
*This book is now released and available for purchase: http://www.fourcourtspress.ie/product.php?intProductID=1132 "
Cabhail Bhaile Uí Chondhuibh appears to represent a late-medieval fortified dwelling associated with the Ó Conduibh lineage of the Burren. The Ó Conduibh name (altn. Ó Conbhaigh or Ó Connmhaigh, anglice O’Conway) achieved renown in the medieval annals as bearers of the name were skilled musicians attached to the ruling Gaelic lineages of Corcomroe.
The Uí Chondhuibh emerge in the mid-fourteenth century as professional practitioners of music and they continued to cultivate this art well into the sixteenth century. This contrasts with other learned kindreds from Corcomroe such as the Clann Chruitín (McCurtins) musicians and historians at Kilmacrehy and the Meic Fhlannchadha (McClancys) law-brehons at Tuath Ghlae (Killilagh). Another local learned kindred, the Uí Dhuibhdhábhoireann lawyer-jurists, are first attested as ollamhain of Corcomroe in brehon law in 1364, and had their law school at Cahermacnaughten, some three kilometres from Cabhail Bhaile Uí Chondhuibh. The earliest reference in the annals to the Uí Chondhuibh pre-date almost all subsequent references to these professional learned kindreds, and they are the only learned family from Corcomroe who are accorded attention in the Thomond-centric fourteenth-century saga-text, the Caithréim Thoirdhealbhaigh.
A new discovery of a possible fortified house site of this learned family throws new light on the materality and dwelling-places of An t-Aos Dána (the Gaelic learned class). Furthermore, research has unveiled significant links between the Uí Chondhuibh and the late medieval church, including a speculative identification of the place(s) of their professional scholarship in the Burren region of north Co. Clare.
This perception drew on his self-conscious view that his learning derived from the curriculum of the professional bardic schools which, in the west of Ireland, operated up to the mid-seventeenth century. He saw himself as a representative of what we might term the classical Gaelic literary tradition. The fact that the family to whom he belonged, the Clann Chruitín, were hereditary seanchaidhthe with medieval origins, meant that he saw himself as a descendant of a time-honoured learned line.
O’Brien, the sixth earl of Thomond. It presents, in considerable detail,
papers and legal documents relating to the Thomond estates in counties
Tipperary, Limerick and Clare. As is apparent from the front page of the
register, the constituent papers that formed the Thomond estate records
were deemed ‘evidences and writings’. These papers were, at least for a
period, held in the study of Bunratty castle. Abstracts of these ‘evidences’ were made and entered into the register transcribed here, and which is now kept at Petworth House in West Sussex, England. The register, along with the other Thomond papers, are publicly accessible, upon request, from the West Sussex Records Office in Chichester. The reason that this extraordinary archive of Irish material was deposited in England can be traced to the O’Brien earls of Thomond who relocated to England during the turbulent 1640s.
from the late medieval period for Thomond. Their survival owes as much
to the happy fact that a disproportionate number of Irish language deeds
survive in the Thomond collection, as to the fortuitous intervention of antiquaries such as Tadhg Ó Rodaighe (d.1706) and James Hardiman (d.1855). A significant portion of the surviving Gaelic legal instruments refer to people and places of east County Clare. Many refer to dealings of the O’Brien earls of Thomond and their predecessors, and owe their survival to the well-preserved legal records of the main branches of that family. A significant number involve matters dealing with the Meic Conmara (McNamara) whose lordship of Clann Chuiléin was the geographical locus of many of the deeds. The deeds contain information about people, events and places and they deal with matters about land acquisition, contracts and other agreements. The deeds which have survived tend to be summaries of legal cases and judgements rather than an exposé of legal reasoning or the articulation of a certain legal position. As legal documents they retain a utilitarian quality which makes them informative pieces of evidence for the practical application of Gaelic, or brehon law, in the late medieval period.
This is a link to the proceedings of the evening, beginning with the welcome by the Clans of Ireland Cathaoirleach, Gearóid Ó Ceallaigh, and an introductory lecture on the study of Gaelic Ireland and a discussion with four of the book's contributors, hosted by Luke McInerney.
The recording can be viewed at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAQF8cD3ySQ&t=3s
The review of the book was authored by Patrick M. Owens, Assistant Professor of Classics at Colgate University.