History (Conference proceedings)
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Item type: Item , The descendants of Brian Boru(GGI [Genetic Genealogy Ireland], 2015) Swift, CatherineItem type: Item , Surname research and DNA: Publications, possibilities and pitfalls(Dublin City Library, 2015) Swift, CatherineItem type: Item , Paddy le Carpenter and surname formation in the mid-west(UCD [University College Dublin], 2015) Swift, CatherineItem type: Item , Early genealogies of West Clare(Kilrush and District Historical Society, 2015) Swift, CatherineItem type: Item , Blood of the Dubliners(Dublin City Library, 2013) Swift, CatherineItem type: Item , The multilingual origins of medieval Irish surnames(ISOGG [International society of Genetic Genealogy], 2015) Swift, CatherineItem type: Item , Killaloe – royal and ecclesiastical power on the merchants’ river(UCD [University College Dublin], 2015) Swift, CatherineItem type: Item , Migrancy in Medieval Ireland: Merchants, monks, miscreants and mercenaries(UCC [University College Cork], 2018) Swift, CatherineItem type: Item , Brotherly love and ancestral veneration in early Ireland(JPI on Culturale Heritage, 2016) Swift, CatherineItem type: Item , What is an Irish clan?(GGI [Genetic Genealogy Ireland], 2015) Swift, CatherineItem type: Item , The unique nature of Dál Cais DNA(Trinity College Dublin, 2014) Swift, CatherineItem type: Item , Surname formation in Ireland: Discussion, debates and DNA(SNSBI [Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland], 2013) Swift, CatherineItem type: Item , The gods of Newgrange in Irish literature & Romano-Celtic tradition(Archaeopress, 2003) Swift, CatherineThis paper examines the proposition put forward by Professor M.J. and Claire O'Kelly that medieval Irish literature provides us with evidence of gods who may have been worshipped by those woho built Neolithic Newgrange. After examination of the literature, and the etymology of the various names used, it is agreed that the gods described may indeed originate in the prehistoric period but contrary to the O'Kellys' views, the late Iron Age/Roman period is put forward as the most likely dating range. It is further argued that the existence of such gods should be linked to the Roman coins and jewellery found outside Newgrange. It is suggested that the cultural context of these Roman finds is best explained by Roman worship outside megalithic tombs in southern England and the possibility of a late prehistoric invasion of the Boyne valley region from Britain is put forward.Item type: Item , Royal fleets in Viking Ireland: the evidence of Lebor na Cert, A.D. 1050-1150(Maney Publishing, 2004) Swift, CatherineItem type: Item , Scultptors and their customers: A study of Clonmacnoise grave-slabs(The Stationery Office, 2003) Swift, CatherineItem type: Item , Dating Irish grave slabs: The evidence of the annals(The Stationery Office, 1995) Swift, CatherineItem type: Item , Celts, Romans and the Coligny calendar(Oxbow Books, 2002) Swift, CatherineIt is hard for those who have them to admire the rapidly developing system of shortterm academic contracts but one advantage for the scholar in such a situation is that they can facilitate the development of a wider overview of a number of cognate fields. Through an analysis of the dating and language of the Coligny calendar, I seek to explore the theoretical question of the value or otherwise of using sources which are both chronologically and geographically Lmrelated. This is a practice which, while not unknown in Roman archaeology, has been endemic in Celtic studies. It is an approach for which Celtic archaeology has been criticised by many - people do, after all, occasionally feast, boast, drink, fight and chop off heads without necessarily being ethnically or even culturally related. This fundamental reality, allied perhaps to the almost complete omission of the word 'Celt' from Barry Cunliffe's formative text-book on the insular iron age (1974), has led to the situation that, in the early years of the third millennium, a climate of opinion which is antagonistic to the notion of a pan-European Celtic culture appears dominant in British and Irish archaeology. With increasing vehemence, scholars such as Timothy Champion (1982, 1996), Malcolm Chapman (1992), John Waddell (1991, 1995), John Collis (1996), Simon James (1999) and Barra 6 Dormabhain (2000) have argued that the concept of 'Celticity' is one formed in academic circles from the eighteenth century on; that there is nO evidence for a 'Celtic' invasion of Britain or Ireland from the Continent and that continuity from the late Bronze Age, rather than innovation introduced from abroad is the distinguishing feature of insular Iron Age cultures. It is noteworthy that these criticisms are all directed towards the inappropriateness of the Celtic model in relation to the Iron age. This ignores the basic fact that the main rationale for the model, the evidence of language, belongs to the period of the Roman empire and to the early medieval literatures of Ireland and Wales. The Coligny calendar demonstrates the existence of closely related words in Gaul during the period of Roman occupation and in Ireland in the eighth century AD. This poses fundamental questions of in terpretation for those who seek to understand the relationships between the countries of north-western Europe in the first millennium after Christ.

