Book of Uí Mhaine: History of Medieval Galway

The book investigates the Book of Uí Mhaine (Book of Hy-Many) - one of the most important manuscripts of late medieval Ireland. It was written over a period of seven years for Muircheartach Ó Ceallaigh, bishop of Clonfert and later archbishop of Tuam (d. 1407), probably in the ancient territory of Uí Mhaine (east Galway, south Roscommon, part of Clare, part of Offaly).

The fourteenth-century Irish manuscript was the work of many scholars and a miscellaneous collection of much that was considered vital for a bishop to know in fourteenth-century Ireland. The manuscript remained in County Galway until 1757. It was in Galway city in the mid-seventeenth century when several scholars had access to it, and referred to it as the Book of Ó Dubhagáin.

Edited by Elizabeth Boyle (Maynooth University) and Ruairí Ó hUiginn (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), Book of Uí Mhaine (Royal Irish Academy, 2023) examines all aspects of the manuscript, including its production, the medieval texts it contains, its decoration and its later history.

Gathering together work by experts from Irish and UK universities, the book sheds new light on the manuscript and is lavishly illustrated with examples of its beautiful scripts and decorated initials. One highlight is an edition and translation by Professor Liam Breatnach of a medieval Irish poem never published before which possibly dates to the twelfth or thirteenth century, and which discusses all sorts of occupations held by people in medieval Ireland, from musicians to doctors, silversmiths to comb-makers.

The manuscript's size, scope and extent, the range of texts it encompasses and its illumination all mark it out as one of the outstanding productions of Irish scholarship in the period and a veritable treasure trove of traditional Irish history and learning. In addition to lengthy genealogical tracts on the Uí Mhaine in South Galway and on many notable Irish families, it contains versions of the Bansheanchas, the Dindsheanchas, Cóir Anmann, wisdom texts, glossaries, poetry and many other compositions.

Elizabeth Boyle is a medieval historian specialising in the intellectual, literary and religious culture of Ireland and Britain. A former Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge, she now works in the Department of Early Irish at Maynooth University, where she was Head of Department for five years until 2020. She was born in Dublin, grew up in Suffolk and returned to live in Dublin in 2013. Her first book Fierce Appetites was published in 2022.

The book will be available to purchase on the night.

This is a ticketed event - tickets are free but limited.