Anne-Julie Lafaye - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Anne-Julie Lafaye

A Companion to the English Dominican Province. Editors: Eleanor J. Giraud and J. Cornelia Linde, 2021

Mendicant studies in Ireland have been marked by a tendency to see Ireland as having followed in ... more Mendicant studies in Ireland have been marked by a tendency to see Ireland as having followed in the footsteps of Britain, including architectural matters. In 1224 the Dominican friars who first arrived to Ireland came from England, where they had arrived three years earlier. The arrival and progress of the mendicant orders in Ireland took place in the context of its political and economic colonisation by the Anglo-Normans, with many mendicant communities established under their patronage and that of the English king.

This chapter represents the first comprehensive and comparative study of the corpus of standing and excavated remains of mendicant friaries in Britain and Ireland, their position in the landscape, and the physical impact of the friars’ buildings and precincts on their environment. In doing so, it identifies processes of inspiration and influence, and the transferral of skills and architectural forms at play between the two islands. This chapter questions the historical tradition which, when it comes to the foundation and construction of mendicant friaries, typically views England as the centre and Ireland as a periphery influenced by that centre, and demonstrates that in reality the situation was in fact much more complex and nuanced.

Journal of the Cork Historical & Archaeological Society, 2019

The Carmelite friary in Castlelyons, county Cork, was established under the patronage of John de ... more The Carmelite friary in Castlelyons, county Cork, was established under the patronage of John de Barry at the beginning of the fourteenth century, Castlelyons having been established as a borough by the Barrys in their cantred of Olethan sometime in the thirteenth century. Little has been published about this important example of a medieval mendicant friary in a rural landscape. This article presents the results of research carried out on the history and architecture of the remains of the friary, and also discusses its place in the landscape of the village of Castlelyons. The findings are placed within the broader context of medieval mendicant foundations and architecture in Ireland and the rest of Europe, and of recent developments in mendicant studies.

SETTLEMENT CHANGE ACROSS MEDIEVAL EUROPE: OLD PARADIGMS AND NEW VISTAS, 2019

Recent research on mendicant settlements has underlined their crucial place in the landscapes of ... more Recent research on mendicant settlements has underlined their crucial place in the landscapes of medieval Ireland, both urban and rural. The establishment of friaries in existing towns, newly founded boroughs, or rural environments throughout the medieval period was the product of both the friars’ and their orders’ identity and role as mendicants, and of their benefactors’ own spiritual, economic, and political strategies with regards to territorial and social control, in a colonial context. But, as often with the study of mendicant settlements, the focus has stayed mostly on Franciscan and Dominican foundations, as they left most of the material remains scattered throughout the country’s modern landscape. This paper proposes to shift the focus onto a group of 14th- and 15th-century foundations by the Augustinian friars, located in the western counties of Mayo and Sligo. It looks at the landscape context of the foundations and explores the part they may have played in the evolution of the political geography and of the largely rural landscapes of the region from the 14th to the 16th century.

Discovery Programme Reports 9, A research Miscellany , 2018

This paper examines the documentary and physical evidence for the origins and early development ... more This paper examines the documentary and physical evidence for the origins and early development of the medieval borough of Kilmallock, exploring how it fits within the context of borough planning introduced by the Anglo-Normans in thirteenth-century Ireland. It also takes a look at Kilmallock Dominican priory, looking at its position with regards to the urban space, and placing it in the context of mendicant settlements in Ireland. The architecture and the structural development of the priory are reassessed, as is what it can tell us about piety and patronage in a medieval urban community and its hinterland, but also about Irish mendicant architecture in general, and how the identity of the Dominicans as mendicant friars and their reliance on the generosity of benefactors impacted the structural developments of their churches.

Church and Settlement in Ireland, 2018

The arrival of the mendicant orders in Ireland occurred in the context of an on-going process of ... more The arrival of the mendicant orders in Ireland occurred in the context of an on-going process of Anglo-Norman colonization. In this paper, based on research undertaken within the IRC funded project ‘Monastic Ireland: landscape and settlement’, I explored the extent to which the macro and micro topography of mendicant settlements within the landscape of medieval Ireland relates to the changes brought about to this landscape between the 13th and the 16th century, as well as to the spiritual renewal epitomized by the friars’ new form of religious life, doing so by presenting specific case studies of urban and rural friaries.

L'économie des couvents mendiants en Europe centrale (Bohême, Hongrie, Pologne, v. 1220-v. 1550), 2018

This essay explores the material remains of mendicant architecture and sculpture in Ireland, aimi... more This essay explores the material remains of mendicant architecture and sculpture in Ireland, aiming to present how the ideal of poverty can be materialised and how poverty relates to materiality. How does the material appearance of friaries express the friars’ poverty? How does voluntary and institutional poverty relate to endowed materiality? These questions become even more pertinent in relation to the Observant movement. How did observance of poverty manifest itself architecturally? Did the decoration and furnishings of Observant houses become more limited? Or, quite the contrary, did they require materiality to express and promote their ideals of reform? In addressing these questions, the essay draws on the findings of two recent projects that aimed at a re-appraisal of mendicant material culture in Ireland in relation to social, religious, political and intellectual landscape as well as to the material presence of the mendicants in the real landscape of towns and countryside. These two projects, namely the Material Culture of Irish Mendicant Orders Project and the Monastic Ireland Project, reflect a renewed and dynamic interest in mendicant studies that have occurred in Ireland over the past two decades.

Etudes franciscaines, 2016

Dans cet article, je propose d'abord un rapide aperçu du patrimoine architectural représenté par ... more Dans cet article, je propose d'abord un rapide aperçu du patrimoine
architectural représenté par les vestiges des couvents franciscains médiévaux en Irlande, peu connu en dehors du pays. J’explore en particulier le couvent de de Quin dans le comté de Clare, fondation du xve siècle. Je me penche ensuite sur la question du financement du projet de construction des couvents, en présentant le rapport direct entre cette bienfaisance à l’égard des frères et la construction et le développement du complexe conventuel. Il s’agit aussi de discuter des conséquences que cette dépendance a pu avoir sur l’architecture même, notamment en ce qui concerne l’espace ecclésial et son organisation spatiale, du point de vue des activités liturgiques et pastorales des frères, et de leur identité d’ordre mendiant ouvrant leurs églises aux laïcs, aux vivants comme aux morts. L’article se termine par l’examen de l’architecture de deux couvents franciscains du comté de Cork, Timoleague et Kilcrea, qui en illustrent les propos et témoignent de la continuité architecturale des couvents franciscains irlandais tout au long du Moyen Âge, et son rapport au contexte politico-social de l’Irlande médiévale.

Les grands ordres monastiques européens formèrent au Moyen Âge les premières organisations transn... more Les grands ordres monastiques européens formèrent au Moyen Âge les premières organisations transnationales au monde, établissant d’importants réseaux de monuments dans toute l’Europe. À l’impact physique indéniable de leur présence sur les paysages ruraux et urbains de l’Europe médiévale s’ajoute la question du rôle joué par ces ordres religieux dans la diffusion des techniques et formes architecturales et artistiques, et par extension dans la construction d’une histoire artistique et culturelle européenne liée au partage d’un patrimoine matériel.

This paper presents the first results of a study that compares the Dominican settlements of East... more This paper presents the first results of a study that compares the Dominican settlements
of East Munster and Leinster in medieval Ireland. It aims to examine the involvement of both the friars and their patrons in the establishment of new friaries while taking into account the political and economic context of these regions as well as the general context of the Dominican Order in Ireland and elsewhere in the Middle Ages. It also explores the physical setting and landscape context of each group of foundations, attempting to evaluate the extent of the impact and role of the friars and their friaries in relation to their surrounding environment.

'Die Klöster der Franziskaner im Mittelalter Räume, Nutzungen, Symbolik', Gert Melville, Leonie Silberer, Bernd Schmies (eds), 2014

Buttevant: a Medieval Anglo-French Town in Ireland, Eamonn Cotter (ed), Jun 2013

Conference Presentations by Anne-Julie Lafaye

conference l’Observance: entre normalisation et repression, Ecole Française de Rome, Italy., 2019

In the seventeenth century Fr Donatus Mooney, a Franciscan Observant historian, described Irish O... more In the seventeenth century Fr Donatus Mooney, a Franciscan Observant historian, described Irish Observant foundations as naturally abundant, presenting them as divinely chosen and paradise-like places, while individual Observant friars were portrayed by Mooney as followers of sacred poverty, and as suggested in this paper, the true followers of the early Franciscans. The significant number of Franciscan and Augustinian Observant foundations in the rural landscapes of western Ireland and the architecture of their churches, viewed together with the apparent decline of parochial infrastructures at the time, all suggest that the Observant reform played a crucial part in the religious landscape of late medieval Ireland. As described by Mooney, the Observants presented the laity with a model of holiness to emulate, and offered through their preaching and pastoral care the guidance and spiritual services often lacking in the local clergy. On the other hand, sources such as papal registers offer us glimpses into the more practical and everyday life of Observant communities, as well as into the life and careers of individual friars, which sometimes suggest that Irish Observant friars did not always practiced what they preached.

In this paper, through a number of case studies of places and personages associated with the Franciscan and Augustinian Observant Irish reform movement, we aim to explore the distinctive characteristics and the impact of the Observant reform among these two orders in late medieval Ireland. The paper also looks at the impact of Observants on local lay communities and the extent to which the perception of late medieval Observant friars and the ideals they were meant to embody might have differed from the realities of their communal life, the relation to their lay patrons, and their personal ambitions.

International Medieval Congress, Leeds University, UK., 2019

In Ireland perhaps more than most countries in Europe, the ruined remains of medieval mendicant f... more In Ireland perhaps more than most countries in Europe, the ruined remains of medieval mendicant friaries survive in significant numbers, and most belong to the two best known and most studied mendicant orders, the Franciscans and the Dominicans. The former in particular have left behind a number of impressive monuments standing strikingly in the rural landscapes of western Ireland, and the study of these friaries has formed the basis of a lot of what we associate with mendicant architecture in Ireland. On the other hand, the friaries of the other two main male mendicant orders to have thrived in Ireland, the Carmelites and the Augustinian friars, have not been the object of much scholarly interest. It is true that very little is left of the Carmelite friaries, but there is significantly more left of the Augustinian friaries. While there has not been much published about the Augustinian friars and their friaries in Ireland in the past few decades, three sites have been the object of recent, as yet unpublished archaeological studies using geophysical surveying, drone surveying and laser scanning, all associated with deserted medieval settlement, in Skreen, Clonmines, and in Burriscarra, where as part of my own research project and with the collaboration of surveyors from the Discovery programme we have carried out a topographical drone survey and a laser scanning of the friary. This paper aimed to answer the following questions: How does this architectural corpus compare to its Dominican and Franciscan counterparts? And what can their buildings, especially their churches, tell us about the impact of the friars in local communities, including in a more rural context?

In this paper I presented the research questions, case-studies, and data gathered during the firs... more In this paper I presented the research questions, case-studies, and data gathered during the first few months of a two-year project funded by the Irish Research Council which proposes to investigate the social and spiritual infrastructure in late medieval Ireland by exploring the physical, religious and social impact of the Augustinian friars – one of four mendicant orders to have settled in medieval Ireland from the 13th century onward – through an in-depth historical and architectural survey of all twelve sites where remains survive

In fifteenth-century Ireland and in the years before the dissolution of the monasteries, favourab... more In fifteenth-century Ireland and in the years before the dissolution of the monasteries, favourable political and economic conditions and the success of the mendicant observant reform in the country led to a dramatic rise in the number of mendicant foundations. By the end of the fourteenth century the royal English authority had contracted, and Irish and Anglo-Irish regional lordships had emerged, along with a renewed interest in mendicant patronage. Despite difficult conditions the Augustinian friars had experienced a measure of success in the fourteenth century, which they sustained into the fifteenth-century, especially in the west of the country, where a number of remains still stand. These were among many other mendicant foundations in what were very rural environments with low density of populations, across rather modest stretches of land. In this paper I presented a couple of case-studies of these Augustinian foundations, their history, landscape context and architecture, and discussed what they can tell us about the religious practice and beliefs of late medieval Ireland and the role of mendicant communities in shaping them, in particular in non-urban environments.

This paper aimed to explore the transformation of the monastic landscape in the southeast of Irel... more This paper aimed to explore the transformation of the monastic landscape in the southeast of Ireland following the arrival of the Anglo-Normans, by focusing on the monastic foundation in Ferns, examining its physical and territorial development in relation to the Gaelic kingship and the changing political landscape of the region, from the 12th to the 15th century.

The arrival and progress of the mendicant orders in thirteenth-century Ireland has often been see... more The arrival and progress of the mendicant orders in thirteenth-century Ireland has often been seen as closely linked to the development of the Anglo-Norman colony, and crucial in spreading the forms and features of Gothic architecture in Ireland. Mendicant orders were of course international orders, and the construction of their friaries was undoubtedly influenced by their experience abroad. But they also demonstrated a great capacity for adaptation, to landscapes and circumstances, adopting local architectural trends and developing their own. In thirteenth-century Ireland, despite a majority of foundations in an Anglo-Norman context, their popularity spanned across all ethnic and social groups, and mendicant friaries somehow assumed a liminal position, both figuratively and physically: between the colonial and native worlds, manifest in their position in margin of boroughs and in non-urban environments; and between the ‘universality’ of their religious identity as mendicants and the local circumstances they encountered, manifest architecturally in the amalgation of imported features and the development of new ones. In this paper I examined these aspects of mendicant settlement by looking in particular at the Dominican priory in Kilmallock, its foundations and position in the medieval borough, its layout, and its architecture.

A Companion to the English Dominican Province. Editors: Eleanor J. Giraud and J. Cornelia Linde, 2021

Journal of the Cork Historical & Archaeological Society, 2019

SETTLEMENT CHANGE ACROSS MEDIEVAL EUROPE: OLD PARADIGMS AND NEW VISTAS, 2019

Discovery Programme Reports 9, A research Miscellany , 2018

Church and Settlement in Ireland, 2018

L'économie des couvents mendiants en Europe centrale (Bohême, Hongrie, Pologne, v. 1220-v. 1550), 2018

Etudes franciscaines, 2016

'Die Klöster der Franziskaner im Mittelalter Räume, Nutzungen, Symbolik', Gert Melville, Leonie Silberer, Bernd Schmies (eds), 2014

Buttevant: a Medieval Anglo-French Town in Ireland, Eamonn Cotter (ed), Jun 2013

conference l’Observance: entre normalisation et repression, Ecole Française de Rome, Italy., 2019

International Medieval Congress, Leeds University, UK., 2019

In fifteenth-century Ireland and in the years before the dissolution of the monasteries, a combin... more In fifteenth-century Ireland and in the years before the dissolution of the monasteries, a combination of favorable political and economic conditions and the success of the mendicant observant reform in the country led to a dramatic rise in the number of mendicant foundations. The fourteenth century had been one of decline for the English colony, and by the end of it the royal central authority had contracted and Irish and Anglo-Irish regional lordships had emerged, along with a renewed interest in mendicant patronage. While very few Franciscan and Dominican communities were established in the fourteenth century, the Augustinian friars experienced a measure of success despite the difficult conditions. They sustained a similar rate of foundations in the fifteenth-century, especially in the west of the country, where a number of remains still stand, allowing for an architectural and spatial study of their churches. In this paper I proposed to take a look at the continuity and changes expressed in the architecture and internal spaces of these Augustinian churches, and what it can tell us about religion and devotion in Ireland in the decades before to the dissolution. I considered how the relation of the friars with the laity manifested itself in the churches’ architecture and artistic décor, focusing in particular on the role of the friars in the economy of salvation and its material manifestation in their churches (tombs, chapels, altars…). To do so I looked at a number of Augustinian friaries, but also draw comparison with the churches of other mendicant orders from the same period.

This conference held in the University of South Denmark in Odense focused on the role of the Domi... more This conference held in the University of South Denmark in Odense focused on the role of the Dominicans in the medieval society of Northern Europe, and in my contribution I chose to discuss the impact of the friars in the largely rural landscapes of medieval Ireland. Ireland experienced relatively limited urbanisation in the Middle Ages, and its handful of cities and scores of modest boroughs might not have appeared as the ideal environment for the Dominican order to thrive, as they favoured large and populous towns elsewhere. But in Ireland too the success of the order was immediate, and a number of foundations occurred, from early on, in the non-urban landscapes of the country. Using a number of case studies, I showed how the political and economic context of medieval Ireland meant that patronage became available in places where urban settlements simply did not exist, but where wealthy aristocratic families wished for the friars to settle: in newly founded boroughs, no larger than villages and of little resemblance to urban centres both in terms of physical characteristics and socio-economic fabric, or even in rural areas nowhere near nucleated settlements. I looked at the circumstances around the establishment of these communities, and at the friars’ role and impact in such landscapes, in regards to their spiritual and pastoral activities, socio-economic practice, and to the physical and architectural presence of their friaries in relation to both these activities, and to their benefactors’ own pious, political and economic interests.

This workshop was about the position of the choir in mendicant churches, and Dr D’Aughton and I c... more This workshop was about the position of the choir in mendicant churches, and Dr D’Aughton and I chose to focus our attention on the remains of the Franciscan churches in Ireland. The important number of Franciscan friaries that have survived in the modern landscape, sometimes extensively, offer architectural historians, art historians and archaeologists a unique opportunity to observe the material realisation of Franciscan ideals and their attitudes to the use of space, and to tackle questions about architecture, decoration and division of space. In this paper, we discussed the position of the choir in Irish Franciscan churches in how it related to the general division and organisation of the ecclesiastical space. We looked at the space of the choir as the area used by the friars, as well as in its relation to the lay community, materially, spiritually and symbolically. This discussion was based on architectural and archaeological evidence as well as textual and iconographical evidence: a number of sculpted figural images and tombs also survive in these churches, and are key to our understanding of the friars’ novel approach to the ecclesiastical space, in particular the role of the choir.

In this one-day workshop focusing on religious orders and art in medieval Europe, I had another, ... more In this one-day workshop focusing on religious orders and art in medieval Europe, I had another, welcome opportunity to discuss the impressive and relatively unknown architectural heritage of the mendicant orders in Ireland, choosing to discuss in particular the architecture and iconography of Franciscan churches. I talked about the role of the friars’ lay benefactors in funding architectural and decorative programs, in particular those connected to the economy of salvation, such as burials, altars, or chapels. Illustrating my contribution with many pictures of a number of the best preserved Irish Franciscan friaries, I examined the structural and spatial consequences of these architectural and decorative elements, the surviving iconography found within the ecclesiastical space, and what all of this can tell us about the relationship between the friars and their patrons, and about the impact of mendicant spirituality in local lay communities.

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In this paper I proposed to discuss the process of settlement of the mendicant orders and the lan... more In this paper I proposed to discuss the process of settlement of the mendicant orders and the landscape context of their friaries in Ireland, in relation with the economic and political context of where they settled, with a focus on the Dominican order and the towns of Leinster, attempting to highlight any patterns that can be traced, and how it might compare to what happened in other regions in Ireland, and elsewhere in Europe. I also looked at the location of the friaries within these settlements, at the foundation and development of the friary precincts and how it fitted in with the development of the towns concerned, in order to better grasp the extent of the role and impact of the mendicant friaries on the urban landscape of medieval Ireland, in terms of strategies of urban and economic development and political and social control, within the broader context of the orders in medieval Europe.

In the Middle Ages religious houses rapidly became an important physical presence all over Europe... more In the Middle Ages religious houses rapidly became an important physical presence all over Europe. The Benedictines, Cistercians, Augustinians, and later the mendicant orders were among the first transnational organisations, establishing an impressive network of stone buildings across the continent. From the diffusion of architectural styles and techniques to the impact of their presence on the rural and urban landscapes of medieval Europe, this paper looked at a few aspects of the role monasteries and friaries may have had in the development – beyond regional particularities - of a common artistic and cultural European history, and in the construction of a shared material heritage.

En 2013, une quarantaine de boîtes en bois, contenant des photographies sur plaques de verre dat... more En 2013, une quarantaine de boîtes en bois, contenant des photographies sur plaques de verre datant de la fin du XIXème siècle et du début du XXème siècle, ont été découvertes au lycée Colbert dans le Xe arrondissement de Paris. Ce fonds d’environ 1800 vues sur verre est composé d’images de villes, de villages et de leurs habitants. C’est un témoignage très vivant et émouvant des paysages et des sociétés au début du XXème siècle, qui nous montre le monde tel qu’il était vu et présenté au public dans la France de la Belle Epoque. Ces vues sur verre illustrent également le développement, à partir de la fin du XIXème siècle, de l’utilisation d’images projetées en tant que matériel pédagogique. L’objet de cette communication a donc été de présenter les enjeux de l’exploitation et de la valorisation de ce fonds effectués dans le cadre d’un partenariat entre le lycée Colbert et un projet impliquant plusieurs centres de recherche universitaires, le Labex EHNE – Ecrire une histoire nouvelle de l’Europe).
Nous avons abordé dans un premier temps la découverte et l’histoire du fonds ainsi que le contexte de la projection d’images fixes en tant que support pédagogique dans une école municipale parisienne au début du XXème siècle, et avons évoqué ensuite le fonds retrouvé un siècle plus tard, et la manière dont il est exploité et valorisé au sein de l’établissement dans le cadre d’un atelier-archives, d’un blog et d’une exposition organisée avec des élèves. Dans ce cadre, l’image n’a plus seulement une fonction de support mais devient l’objet même d’un projet pédagogique. Cette démarche a ainsi permis d'envisager une réflexion sur la seconde vie de ces images, devenues, grâce à leur exploitation scientifique et pédagogique un « patrimoine iconographique » numérisé. Un patrimoine utilisé, par exemple, pour illustrer l’encyclopédie en ligne « Ecrire une histoire de l’Europe », fruit du travail scientifique du LaBex EHNE.

The survival rate of mendicant buildings in Ireland offers a valuable opportunity for scholars to... more The survival rate of mendicant buildings in Ireland offers a valuable opportunity for scholars to study holistically mendicant friaries and their landscapes. Scholars in England, France and Italy have long studied mendicant settlements using cross-disciplinary methodologies but have been hampered by a lack of physical remains. This paper presented the results of a research which adopted a genuinely cross-disciplinary approach - based specifically on the French tradition of Annales scholarship (associated with Georges Duby, Jacques le Goff and others) - to study the remains of Irish mendicant friaries, combining original documentary research, building-analysis, and reconstructions of the topographies of the friary hinterlands. This approach also entailed to place the mendicant settlements in international context, recognising that mendicantism was an international movement, elements of which crossed political and cultural boundaries. The multi-disciplinary approach and the introduction of comparisons with mendicant settlements abroad have led to more complex and layered conclusions than had been reached in the traditional historiography, which has presented the mendicant settlements as part of the ‘two nations’ narrative, an interpretation based on a limited knowledge of European material and too-great an emphasis on ethnicity.
This paper presented an overview of the research conclusions, including a re-evaluation of the relation between patrons and friars, showing more collaboration between them and affirming the role of the orders and of their interests and objectives in the choice of settlements, while adapting to the local political and economic context; a new understanding of the material impact of the friaries on the Irish medieval landscape; a new reading of the architectural language of the friaries, with the identification of both local developments and of their connections to a wider European Gothic tradition; and an interpretation of the mendicants’ approach to space through a study of the spatial organisation of the friaries never undertaken before, showing that their approach to space was both functional and symbolic.

Der Workshop wird veranstaltet vom Institut für Europäische Kunstgeschichte der Universität Heide... more Der Workshop wird veranstaltet vom Institut für Europäische Kunstgeschichte der Universität Heidelberg und der Fachstelle Franziskanische Forschung Münster in Verbindung mit der Forschungsstelle für Vergleichende Ordensgeschichte Dresden (FOVOG).

Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies

The Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies, 2018

Lunchtime lecture series, Cork Harbour Festival, Cork., 2019

Lecture series for the 700th anniversary of the walling of Cashel, Cashel, Co. Tipperary., 2019

The Irish town of Cashel was in the Middle Ages at the crossroad of the political, economic and o... more The Irish town of Cashel was in the Middle Ages at the crossroad of the political, economic and of course religious conditions that developed in Ireland from the 12th century onward and throughout the Middle Ages: from its status as a pre-Norman royal monastic site and archbishopric to its development as a borough in the context of the Anglo-Norman colonisation, but under the authority of Irish Archbishops, attracting all the major religious orders that prospered in medieval Europe: the Benedictines, the Cistercians, and the mendicant orders, with both the Dominicans and Franciscans settling there. The ecclesiastical infrastructure was completed of course by the local parish church of St John, and the chantry chapel of St Nicholas, founded to support the local leper Hospital. In this paper I explored these various religious foundations, in the context of the political and religious developments that Cashel found itself at the centre of. I looked at aspects relating to patronage and spirituality and how these foundations found their place in broader trends and developments taking place in late medieval society, and to understand the kind of support they received in what was a settlement of rather modest size.

Seminar day at the site of Blackfriary excavation, Trim, Co. Meath, 2019

At this seminar I discussed the Domincan friary of Trim - Blackfriary - in the context of other m... more At this seminar I discussed the Domincan friary of Trim - Blackfriary - in the context of other mendicant foundations, how it compares to other Dominican friaries, but also to the friaries of the other three main mendicant orders, the Franciscans, the Carmelites and the Augustinian friars, starting with their landscape context, and then exploring what Blackfriary might have looked like based on evidence from the excavation and on surviving mendicant remains: was there anything specifically Dominican about it, or can it be related to their mendicant identity, and also to their Irish mendicant identity, compared to mendicant foundations and friaries outside of Ireland.

Mayo Archaeological and Historical Society, Castlebar, Co. Mayo, 2019

In this paper I presented some of the research I have undertaken as part of an IRC-funded project... more In this paper I presented some of the research I have undertaken as part of an IRC-funded project which proposed to investigate the social and spiritual infrastructure of late medieval Ireland by exploring the physical, religious and social impact of the Augustinian friars. I focused on the six friaries they established in Co. Mayo, exploring the political, social and religious context of these foundations, the background and motivations of those involved in them – both friars and patrons –, and how these were reflected in the architecture and internal spaces of the friaries they built.

Research Seminar Series, School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, 2018

In this talk I presented the findings from a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship project funded by the... more In this talk I presented the findings from a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship project funded by the Irish Research Council. At the core of the research is a pluri-disciplinary study of the physical remains of the mendicant order of the Augustinian friars in Ireland and an investigation of the social and spiritual infrastructures in late medieval Ireland through the study of those friaries and the friars who lived in them. It also builds on my existing research on the mendicant orders and their settlements. The choice of the Augustinian friars partly had to do with the fact that the Franciscan and Dominican orders have dominated the historiography, as have the study of their friaries in the countries of their origins, Italy and France, while the Augustinian and Carmelite foundations and their physical remains have been rather neglected in the scholarship, especially in regions considered on the margin of that original geographical core, such as Ireland.

Public talk at the Waterford Treasures Museum and tour of medieval Waterford, 2018

This talk was a presentation of the monastic and mendicant foundations of Waterford: their locati... more This talk was a presentation of the monastic and mendicant foundations of Waterford: their location, historical background, and the impact of these establishments at a time when religious, civic and economic powers were very much inter-connected, and religion impacted on all aspects of people’s lives and monasteries and friaries not only had a religious role, but also had strong economic and social impacts.

This talk, organised as part of Ireland's Heritage Week 2018 explored the history and archaeology... more This talk, organised as part of Ireland's Heritage Week 2018 explored the history and archaeology of medieval Burriscarra, in Co. Mayo, including its Augustinian friary, originally founded for a Carmelite community at the end of the 13th century, and its parish church. A laser-scanning and drone survey carried out last May has shed new light on our understanding of Burriscarra medieval landscape, in particular regarding the existence and location of an Anglo-Norman settlement.

In this seminar paper I discussed new and original research carried out on the Dominican friary a... more In this seminar paper I discussed new and original research carried out on the Dominican friary and the medieval borough of Kilmallock, Co. Limerick. I discussed the origins and the development of the borough of Kilmallock, and how it fits in the context of borough planning introduced by the Anglo-Normans in thirteenth-century Ireland, looking at the documentary and physical clues that exist about its development, and examined whether they amount to systematic planning. I then reflected on the position of the Dominican friary in the context of mendicant settlement, looking at the planning of the church and the domestic buildings, and re-assessed the architecture and structural development of the friary. The overall question asked in this paper, which is also one that encompasses most f my work on the mendicant, was what could this all tell us about piety and patronage, the relation between friars and the laity, and its impact on mendicant architecture, especially the feature of the so-called ‘one-armed transept’, which became ubiquitous in late medieval friaries, especially Dominican and Franciscan foundations.

Le projet Monastic Ireland: Landscape and settlement de l’université Trinity College propose de c... more Le projet Monastic Ireland: Landscape and settlement de l’université Trinity College propose de clarifier le rôle des monastères dans la formation et la distribution de l’habitat rural et urbain irlandais entre les XIIème et le XVIIIème siècles. L’un des phénomènes étudié dans le cadre de ce projet est le rôle des ordres mendiants, dont les couvents deviennent au Moyen-Age un élément reconnaissable et caractéristique du paysage urbain européen. En Irlande, les frères mendiants découvrent un monde rural, très peu urbanisé, où les villes et bourgs qui les accueillent sont de tailles parfois très modestes. Aujourd’hui, la survie de nombreux vestiges mendiants dans tout le pays permet d’étudier non seulement l’architecture des couvents, mais aussi la mesure de leur impact sur un paysage médiéval singulier. C’est ce que j'ai souhaité discuter dans cette communication, à travers des études de cas réalisées dans le cadre de Monastic Ireland, présentant ainsi un patrimoine architectural fascinant mais peu connu en dehors de l’Irlande.

Recent research on mendicant settlements has underlined their crucial place in the landscapes of ... more Recent research on mendicant settlements has underlined their crucial place in the landscapes of medieval Ireland, both urban and rural. The establishment of friaries in existing towns, newly founded boroughs or rural environments throughout the medieval period was the product of both the friars and their orders’ identity and role as mendicants, and of their benefactors’ own spiritual, economic and political strategies with regards to territorial and social control, in a colonial context. But as often with the study of mendicant settlements in Ireland, the focus has stayed mostly on Franciscan and Dominican foundations, as they left most of the material remains scattered throughout the country’s modern landscape. In this poster, I focused on a group of fourteenth and fifteenth century foundations by the Augustinian friars, located in the western counties of Mayo and Sligo. I looked at why they took place where they did and how they compare to the data collected on the Franciscans and Dominicans in the east and south of the country, in terms of the extent of the friars’ involvement in the foundations, the role of benefactors, and their impact on the local landscape, particularly regarding settlement development in what were very rural environments.

The Monastic Ireland project team is hosting an International Conference, to be held 22nd – 25th ... more The Monastic Ireland project team is hosting an International Conference, to be held 22nd – 25th August in Ennis, Co. Clare. Located in an area rich with the medieval buildings of the European monastic orders, the conference will balance sessions of papers from national and international experts with a variety of site visits, including the friaries at Adare, Ennis and Quin, the abbeys at Corcomroe and Killone, and the monastery at Kilmacduagh. This will hopefully stimulate a focused academic debate on the impact of monasticism in shaping the development of the physical environment across Europe between c.1100 and c.1700.

Cork University Press, 2024

Mendicant orders of friars were a powerful religious movement devoted to poverty and preaching; t... more Mendicant orders of friars were a powerful religious movement devoted to poverty and preaching; they emerged in the early thirteenth century during the time of rapid urbanisation in western Europe and in the context of Church reforms. In 2018 a group of international scholars gathered at University College Cork to address the topic of marginalities in the current studies on mendicantism, and the volume is an outcome of that symposium. The ten essays in the collection investigate geographical, social and historiographical marginalities with regard to mendicant orders. The contributors represent disciplines of archaeology, art history, history, Irish and gender studies, with their topics geographically spanning across Europe. This thematically focused volume combines a variety of approaches and disciplines to create makes a valuable contribution to the field of mendicant studies.