Early Medieval Ireland and Digital Humanities at Maynooth University

My IRC Advanced Laureate Award 2023 for ‘Tracing Diatopic Variation in Old Irish’ is only the latest culmination of a series of over a dozen major project grants (including ones from the ERC, the AHRC and the Royal Irish Academy) that researchers in the Department of Early Irish at Maynooth University have received in the past years and that have transformed the department into a research cluster for the language, literature and intellectual history of medieval Ireland (400–1200, and beyond) with a strong emphasis on Digital Humanities. The projects are, among other things, concerned with the digitisation of three-dimensional objects (OG(H)AM, OPal+, EMILI, EMISoS, CLINIAR, Ulyssses Grant) and of manuscripts (LEIGHEAS), with the edition, analysis and annotations of texts (DiAgnostic, ChronHib, MIMNEC, Blathmac’s Poems, Charms, LExIN), leading to the creation of textual and archaeological corpora, with wider standards and practical issues of digitisation (Digital Gaelic), with the monastic history of early Ireland (Power & Patronage), and with the integrated place of Ireland in medieval European culture and the intellectual history of the time. Not least, members of Early Irish are breaking new ground in public outreach and dissemination (Fierce Appetites).
This poster is therefore meant as showcasing and celebrating the joint achievements of all researchers in Maynooth Early Irish. It will demonstrate how the various projects have secured the Department a centre place in methodological and technological innovation in Celtic and Medieval Studies, with important collaborations across Europe (e.g., Universities Glasgow, Bordeaux, Vienna, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies).