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IHTA Seminar Plenary – 'Medieval Towns: why we need to take account of the country' by Chris Dyer

When

Thursday, May 27, 2021, 19:00

Where

Tickets

Free Registration

'Town and Country: Perspectives from the Irish Historic Towns Atlas' is a seminar series taking place throughout May 2021.

This is the evening penary and final part of the IHTA seminar series May 2021 by Chris Dyer and chaired by Keith Lilley. The session will be approximately one hour including a question and answers and is free to attend

Over the lunchtime sessions we have had 'Monastic tenants, Viking raiders and Hiberno-Norse townspeople' with Howard Clarke and Ruth Johnson; 'Town and country in later medieval Ireland' with Michael Potterton, Jim Galloway and Margaret Murphy; 'Lawyers, merchants and peasants: town and country interaction in early modern Ireland' with Raymond Gillespie and Brendan Scott; and 'From outlying villages to townships: Dublin suburbs in the nineteenth century' with Ruth McManus, Séamas Ó Maitiú, Frank Cullen with an introduction by Colm Lennon, which will be taking place earlier on Thursday 27 May 2021. All of the sessions will be able to watch back here

'Medieval towns: why we need to take account of the country'

Early towns can only be fully understood if we know about their rural context. Town and country existed in parallel,  and are different aspects of the same social formation. They were in constant interaction, and the contact gave both town and country an impetus for change. Towns and villages share a similar topography; both were sources of innovation; the town market depended on country produce and rural traders; the townspeople came from the country and maintained contact with their rural roots. Towns thought that they were culturally superior, but peasants were capable of music and drama and were a source of ideas.

Free registration here

About the speaker

Christopher Dyer has held posts at the Universities of Edinburgh, Birmingham and Leicester, and fellowships from others. His field of research has included medieval agrarian, urban and landscape history, and medieval archaeology. His publications include Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages (1989; revised 1998); Making a Living in the Middle Ages (2002); and A Country Merchant (2012). 

Attending the session

The link for the Teams Live event will be circulated to registered attendees on Wednesday and 90 minutes 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: 

      

 

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