Medieval Dublin XVIII Proceedings of the Friends of Medieval Dublin Symposium 2016

This volume contains a wealth of new research on Dublin’s medieval past, including paired papers by Joseph Harbison and Rene Gapert that re-examine skulls found on the site of the Hospital of St John the Baptist, Thomas Street. Alan Hayden reports on his excavation of property plots fronting onto Kevin Street and New Street and what they tell us about the supposed fourteenth-century decline of Dublin, and Aisling Collins explains the significant findings from the dig of the church and graveyard at St James’s. Antoine Giacometti examines a medieval tanning quarter that showcases leatherworking and shoemaking in medieval Dublin, complementing work by John Nicholl that analyses footwear styles in the late medieval city based on evidence excavated from Chancery Lane. This aspect of life is illustrated too in the findings of Paul Duffy’s excavations in Thomas Street, which reveal a great deal about crafts in the western suburb of medieval Dublin. Franc Myles reports on the findings of his excavation at Keysar’s Lane beside St Audeon’s church in High Street, including some fascinatingly decorated medieval floor tiles; Jon Stirland reports on the discovery of two parallel ditches of possible early medieval/medieval date located to the rear of nos 19–22 Aungier Street; and Edmond O’Donovan describes his discoveries while excavating in the internal courtyard at the site of the Bank of Ireland at College Green, marked on Speed’s 1610 map of Dublin as ‘the hospital’. Historical papers include Denis Casey’s analysis of Dublin’s economy in its twelfth-century Irish context and Brian Coleman’s study of taxation and resistance in fifteenth-century Dublin. Thomas W. Smith shines light on papal provisions to ecclesiastical benefices in thirteenth-century Dublin, while Stephen Hewer examines the oldest surviving original court roll of the Dublin bench, dating from 1290.

Sean Duffy is a professor of medieval Irish and Insular history at Trinity College Dublin and chairman of the Friends of Medieval Dublin.