Bibliography
Tomás
Ó Carragáin s. xx–xxi
Works authored
Ó Carragáin, Tomás, Churches in the Irish landscape: AD 400–1100, Cork: Cork University Press, 2021.
abstract:
Between the fifth century and the ninth, several thousand churches were founded in Ireland, a greater density than most other regions of Europe. This period saw fundamental changes in settlement patterns, agriculture, social organisation, rituals and beliefs, and churches are an important part of that story. The premise of this book is that landscape archaeology is one of the most fruitful ways to study them. By looking at where they were placed in relation to pagan ritual and royal sites, burial grounds, and settlements, and how they fared over the centuries, we can map the shifting strategies of kings, clerics and ordinary people. The result is a fascinating new perspective on this formative period, with wider implications for the study of social power and religious change elsewhere in Europe. The earliest churches, founded at a time of religious diversity (400-550), were often within royal landscapes, showing that some sections of the elite chose to make space for the new religion. These often lost out to new monasteries positioned at a remove from core royal land, making it possible to grant them the great estates on which their wealth was based (550-800). Now, however, founding churches was no longer a prerogative of kings for we see numerous lesser churches outside these estates. In this way middle-ranking people helped transform the landscape and shape religious cultures in which rituals and beliefs of local origin co-existed alongside Christianity. Finally, in the Viking Age (800-1100), some lesser churches were abandoned while community churches began to exert more of a gravitational pull, foreshadowing the later medieval parish system.
abstract:
Between the fifth century and the ninth, several thousand churches were founded in Ireland, a greater density than most other regions of Europe. This period saw fundamental changes in settlement patterns, agriculture, social organisation, rituals and beliefs, and churches are an important part of that story. The premise of this book is that landscape archaeology is one of the most fruitful ways to study them. By looking at where they were placed in relation to pagan ritual and royal sites, burial grounds, and settlements, and how they fared over the centuries, we can map the shifting strategies of kings, clerics and ordinary people. The result is a fascinating new perspective on this formative period, with wider implications for the study of social power and religious change elsewhere in Europe. The earliest churches, founded at a time of religious diversity (400-550), were often within royal landscapes, showing that some sections of the elite chose to make space for the new religion. These often lost out to new monasteries positioned at a remove from core royal land, making it possible to grant them the great estates on which their wealth was based (550-800). Now, however, founding churches was no longer a prerogative of kings for we see numerous lesser churches outside these estates. In this way middle-ranking people helped transform the landscape and shape religious cultures in which rituals and beliefs of local origin co-existed alongside Christianity. Finally, in the Viking Age (800-1100), some lesser churches were abandoned while community churches began to exert more of a gravitational pull, foreshadowing the later medieval parish system.
Works edited
Turner, Sam, and Tomás Ó Carragáin (eds), Making Christian landscapes in Atlantic Europe: conversion and consolidation in the early Middle Ages, Cork: Cork University Press, 2016.
abstract:
Landscapes across Europe were transformed, both physically and conceptually, during the early medieval period (c AD 400-1200), and these changes were bound up with the conversion to Christianity and the development of ecclesiastical power structures. While Christianity represented a more or less common set of beliefs and ideas, early medieval societies were characterized by vibrant diversity: much can potentially be learned about these societies by comparing and contrasting how they adapted Christianity to suit local circumstances. This is the first book to adopt a comparative landscape approach to this crucial subject. It considers the imprint of early medieval Christianity on landscapes along the continent's western shore from Galicia to Norway, and across the northern islands from Britain and Ireland to Iceland. The construction of new monuments clearly led to some major physical changes, but landscapes are not just affected by tangible, material alterations: they are also shaped by new types of knowledge and changing perceptions. Christianity was associated with many such changes including new ways of seeing the land that directly affected how landscapes were inhabited and managed. By examining how people chose to shape their landscapes, this book provides fresh perspectives on the Christianization of Atlantic Europe.
abstract:
Landscapes across Europe were transformed, both physically and conceptually, during the early medieval period (c AD 400-1200), and these changes were bound up with the conversion to Christianity and the development of ecclesiastical power structures. While Christianity represented a more or less common set of beliefs and ideas, early medieval societies were characterized by vibrant diversity: much can potentially be learned about these societies by comparing and contrasting how they adapted Christianity to suit local circumstances. This is the first book to adopt a comparative landscape approach to this crucial subject. It considers the imprint of early medieval Christianity on landscapes along the continent's western shore from Galicia to Norway, and across the northern islands from Britain and Ireland to Iceland. The construction of new monuments clearly led to some major physical changes, but landscapes are not just affected by tangible, material alterations: they are also shaped by new types of knowledge and changing perceptions. Christianity was associated with many such changes including new ways of seeing the land that directly affected how landscapes were inhabited and managed. By examining how people chose to shape their landscapes, this book provides fresh perspectives on the Christianization of Atlantic Europe.
Contributions to journals
Ó Carragáin, Tomás, “Is there an archaeology of lay people at early Irish monasteries?”, BUCEMA 8 (2015). URL: <https://doi.org/10.4000/cem.13620>.
Ó Carragáin, Tomás, “The archaeology of ecclesiastical estates in early medieval Ireland: a case study of the kingdom of Fir Maige”, Peritia 24–25 (2013–2014): 266–312.
abstract:
The first detailed archaeological study of ecclesiastical estates in early medieval Ireland. Using the fine-grained territorial framework of Fir Maige, the settlement archaeology of its three main ecclesiastical estates is analysed: those of Findchú, Molaga and Cránaid. Significant variations are noted. These may reflect varying emphases in clientship versus direct labour. Landscape archaeology can therefore make a significant contribution to understanding the socio-economic strategies of important ecclesiastical sites. Churches on the boundaries of both the estate of Molaga and the kingdom in which it lies are here seen as conscious expressions of christianisation and sovereignty when the latter was under threat. This illustrates how christianisation was often a political process as well as a religious one.
abstract:
The first detailed archaeological study of ecclesiastical estates in early medieval Ireland. Using the fine-grained territorial framework of Fir Maige, the settlement archaeology of its three main ecclesiastical estates is analysed: those of Findchú, Molaga and Cránaid. Significant variations are noted. These may reflect varying emphases in clientship versus direct labour. Landscape archaeology can therefore make a significant contribution to understanding the socio-economic strategies of important ecclesiastical sites. Churches on the boundaries of both the estate of Molaga and the kingdom in which it lies are here seen as conscious expressions of christianisation and sovereignty when the latter was under threat. This illustrates how christianisation was often a political process as well as a religious one.
Ó Carragáin, Tomás, “Archaeology of early medieval baptism at St Mullin’s, Co Carlow”, Peritia 21 (2010): 285–302.
abstract:
Archaeological and documentary evidence is used to argue that the superstructure of St Moling’s Well, Co Carlow, is a baptismal chapel of round 1100, probably built in the context of a heightened concern with the proper administration of the sacrament during the Gregorian reform. In earlier centuries, baptism in the open air, at holy wells and springs seems to have been common. Other water-based rituals carried out at St Mullin’s in medieval times are also considered.
abstract:
Archaeological and documentary evidence is used to argue that the superstructure of St Moling’s Well, Co Carlow, is a baptismal chapel of round 1100, probably built in the context of a heightened concern with the proper administration of the sacrament during the Gregorian reform. In earlier centuries, baptism in the open air, at holy wells and springs seems to have been common. Other water-based rituals carried out at St Mullin’s in medieval times are also considered.
Contributions to edited collections or authored works
Ó Carragáin, Éamonn, and Tomás Ó Carragáin, “Singing in the rain on Hinba? Archaeology and liturgical fictions, ancient and modern (Adomnán, Vita Columbae 3.17)”, in: Elizabeth Mullins, and Diarmuid Scully (eds), Listen, o Isles, unto me: studies in medieval word and image in honour of Jennifer O'Reilly, Cork: Cork University Press, 2011. 204–215.
Ó Carragáin, Tomás, “The saint and the sacred centre: the pilgrimage landscape of Inishmurray”, in: Nancy Edwards (ed.), The archaeology of the early medieval Celtic churches: proceedings of a conference on the archaeology of the early medieval Celtic churches, September 2004, 29, Leeds, London: Maney Publishing, Routledge, 2009. 207–226.
