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REVIEW BY FINBAR McCORMICK
This book is the first interdisciplinary analysis of early Irish kingship based on both historical and archaeological sources; it was formerly the preserve of just historians. This new approach is a fresh contribution to our understanding of kingship, ritual, and power. There is an abundance of archaeological and documentary evidence available from the period to draw on. For instance, more than 45,000 ringforts and 30,000 personal names have been identified. This wealth of evidence, as author Patrick Gleeson rightly observes, can lead to ‘bewildering complexity’.
In recent decades, the study of assembly places and practices has become one of the central areas of medieval research across Europe. This book presents the evidence for Ireland, alongside other topics relating to kingship. The Irish assembly places, known as óenach, are well known in the literature, being associated with horse racing, games, and general entertainment. They were also places where tribute and dues could be rendered and distributed, and laws enacted.
Not long ago, these sites were still difficult to identify archaeologically, but Gleeson argues convincingly that the recently discovered cemetery settlements, many of which were discovered during motorway schemes, are assembly sites. These sites are characterised by burials, but without any associated church or permanent settlement. They do, however, produce evidence for craftworking, the processing of agricultural produce, and feasting. The author holds that these were locations ‘where communities came together to renew or re-imagine ties of kinship’ at the burial sites of their ancestors.
Gleeson presents several case studies of royal landscapes incorporating seats of power, and sites of inauguration and ritual procession associated with kingship. This book, greatly concerned as it is with the rise and fall of royal dynasties and the geographies of their kingdoms, will not be easily accessible to the non-specialist for it requires a thorough knowledge of the documentary sources, along with a familiarity with the present and ancient place names of the areas discussed.
Landscapes of Kingship in Early Medieval Ireland, AD 400-1150
Patrick Gleeson
Four Courts Press, £45
ISBN 978-1801511650
