IHTA seminar series: Town and country in later medieval Ireland

In the second of the IHTA seminar series, Michael Potterton, Jim Galloway and Margaret Murphy will discuss 'Town and country in later medieval Ireland' on Thursday 13 May at 13:00. The session will run for approximately one hour and is free to attend. Only one registration is required for the series. Click here for the full series. 

Speakers

Michael Potterton lectures in the Department of History at Maynooth University. He has published widely on the archaeology and history of later medieval Ireland and was employed for seven years on the Discovery Programme's Medieval Rural Settlement Project. Michael is a member of the Board of the Irish Historic Towns Atlas and the International Commission for the History of Towns. His contribution to this lunchtime seminar presentation focuses on the evidence and impetus for interaction between Ireland's later medieval towns and the countryside around them. Among the factors considered are commerce, security, the church and the impact of overseas trade, drawing primarily from the thirty published fascicles of the Irish Historic Towns Atlas.

Jim Galloway is an independent researcher, based in Co. Carlow, Ireland. He has researched and published widely on later medieval economic and environmental history, including town-country relations and urban hinterlands. For many years he was a researcher and principal project investigator at the Centre for Metropolitan History in the University of London’s Institute of Historical Research. In his part of 'Town and country in later medieval Ireland' he will look at fuel supply as one of the most fundamental links between town and country and consider the problems of ensuring a steady supply of fuel in the later medieval period, with particular reference to the towns of Drogheda and Youghal.

Margaret Murphy lectures in medieval history at Carlow College, St Patricks where she is also Assistant Registrar. Margaret worked with Jim Galloway in the Centre for Metropolitan History, London on a series of research projects examining medieval London’s food supply. She subsequently worked with Michael Potterton in the Discovery Programme, Dublin on a project exploring the region around medieval Dublin. This resulted in a book published by Four Courts Press. Margaret has recently contributed a chapter on ‘The Economy’ to vol. I of The Cambridge History of Ireland (Cambridge, 2018). Her paper for 'Town and country in later medieval Ireland' comprises a case study of Kilkenny which examines the provisioning relationship between medieval Ireland’s largest inland town and its hinterland. She will assess the demands of the town, the capacity of the countryside and the mechanisms which brought producer and consumer together. 

Attending the session

The link for the Teams Live event will be circulated to registered attendees on Wednesday and one hour before the session starts on Thursday. If you have not attended a Teams Live event before, you can watch from a web browser such as Chrome.  You do not need to download the application or sign in to Teams to attend the session. 

When you click on the link, take the following steps to attend: