About this episode

Dr Patrick Wadden discusses the concept of Irish national identity in the early Middle Ages.

Who were the Scotti? The Féni? The Gaels? We were delighted to get Dr Patrick Wadden, from DCU and Belmont Abbey College, NC, USA on the podcast this week to explore the evidence for the existence of the Irish nation as a concept in the early medieval period. Dr Wadden guides us through a variety of texts, in both Latin and the vernacular, which depict the people of Ireland as a community of birth, language, law, religion and, sometimes, politics, from Columbanus, Adomnán and Auraicept na n-Éces the whole way through to Lebor gabála Érenn and the Sex Aetates Mundi. We discuss the role of the Irish language in expressions of Irish identity in the Middle Ages and Wadden reminds us to note the difference between modern scholars identifying something as being key to medieval identity and people at the time seeing it as significant. Suggested reading: Patrick Wadden, 'Church, Apostle and People in early Ireland', Medieval Worlds 5 (2017), pp. 143–169 Kane, Brendan, and Patrick Wadden, eds, An Eoraip: Gaelic Ireland in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Leiden, 2025) Wadden, P., ‘Theories of National Identity in Early Medieval Ireland’…

People in this episode

Guest: Dr Patrick Wadden

Topics covered

• Irish national identity
• early Middle Ages
• Irish language
• medieval texts
• community and identity
• historical evidence

Keywords

• Irish identity
• Scotti
• Féni
• Gaels
• medieval period
• historical texts
• Irish language

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: DCU, Belmont Abbey College, Dept of Early Irish, Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland

Books & works: Church, Apostle and People in early Ireland, An Eoraip: Gaelic Ireland in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Theories of National Identity in Early Medieval Ireland, Lebor gabála Érenn, Sex Aetates Mundi

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