The Friars in Ireland with Conor McDonough episode artwork

EPISODE · Jun 12, 2026 · 52 MIN

The Friars in Ireland with Conor McDonough

from The Medieval Irish History Podcast · host The Medieval Irish History Podcast

This week we are back with part two of our mammoth session with Fr Conor McDonough OP, an exceptional Research Ireland funded PhD researcher in Classics, University of Galway. Conor tells us all about the new mendicant orders in 13th century Ireland: the Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites and Augustinians. Conor explains that these new orders were like 'networks of mass communication' and that friars are kind of like itinerant and urban monks. We hear tales of decline and reform, the Fourth Lateran Council, ethnic tensions, the encroaching black death, and attempts to establish an Irish university in the 1320s.Suggested reading and resources:Treasure Ireland Youtube series https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdPbRZbumpDdJjMBmh_wlGVdx_rQVH38O- Ó Clabaigh, Colmán, ‘The Church, 1050–1460’, in Brendan Smith (ed.), The Cambridge History of Ireland. 1. 600–1550 (Cambridge, 2018), 355–384- Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB, The Friars in Ireland, 1224-1540, Dublin: Four Courts, 2011.- Yvonne McDermott, ‘Women as patrons and benefactors of the friars in medieval Connacht’, Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies, vol. 8 (2019), pp. 235-266.- Edel Bhreathnach, ‘The mendicant orders and vernacular Irish learning in the late medieval period’, Irish Historical Studies, vol. 37, no. 147 (2011), pp. 357-375.Regular episodes every month (on a Friday)Email: [email protected]: Tiago Veloso SilvaSupported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.Views expressed are the speakers' own.Logo design: Matheus de Paula CostaMusic: Lexin_Music

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