Illaunloughan was a small monastery on the Atlantic edge of Ireland that lasted from the late 7th to the 9th century. The well-dated material evidence provides a chronological base for activities and customs that were previously of uncertain age in Ireland.

A major contribution to the study and understanding of Early Medieval Ireland, which offers radical interpretations of new evidence.

"Excavations and surveys adjacent to Hirsel House, Coldstream, have revealed a remarkably detailed history of a proprietory church and its cemetery for a period when the parochial structure in Scotland was in course of development, and when very little is known about the fate of estate churches after they were donated to support the newly founded monasteries of the 12th century. The church is set in a landscape with evidence for settlement from the Neolithic to the establishment of Hirsel House, the seat of the Earl of Home. Here, in an estate the boundaries of which has changed very little since the Middle Ages, a small unicellular drystone structure developed into a well-built Romanesque church with a rare example of its bell founding structure intact. The subsequent history when the church was burnt, robbed of stone and used for domestic purposes, then finally destroyed and covered over in the late Middle Ages is graphically illustrated by the wealth of artefacts from the site. There are traces of other medieval buildings to the north of the site and the cemetery-one of the largest rural cemeteries in Scotland- provides an interesting range of burial modes, as well as, together with the environmental evidence from the site, an insight into the community which the church and cemetery served."

This book tracks the development of social complexity in Ireland from the late prehistoric period on into the Middle Ages. Using a range of methods and techniques, particularly data from settlement patterns, Blair Gibson demonstrates how Ireland evolved from constellations of chiefdoms into a political entity bearing the characteristics of a rudimentary state. This book argues that early medieval Ireland's highly complex political systems should be viewed as amalgams of chiefdoms with democratic procedures for choosing leaders rather than kingdoms. Gibson explores how these chiefdom confederacies eventually transformed into recognizable states over a period of 1,400 years.

This volume offers unparalleled coverage of all aspects of art and architecture from medieval Western Europe, from the 6th century to the early 16th century. Drawing upon the expansive scholarship in the celebrated 'Grove Dictionary of Art' and adding hundreds of new entries, it offers students, researchers and the general public a reliable, up-to-date, and convenient resource covering this field of major importance in the development of Western history and international art and architecture.

Contents: Charles Doherty (UCD) The idea of the parish - Patrick J. Duffy (NUI Maynooth) The shape of the parish - Elizabeth FitzPatrick (NUI, Galway) The buildings and settlement of the parish - Colmán Etchingham (NUI Maynooth) Pastoral provision in the first millennium: a two-tier service? - Tomás Ó Carragáin (NUI Cork) Church buildings and pastoral care in early medieval Ireland - Tadhg O'Keeffe (UCD) The built environment of local community worship between the late eleventh and early thirteenth centuries - Sinéad Ní Ghabhláin (Archaeologist) Late twelfth-century church construction: evidence of parish formation? - Helen Bermingham (Archaeologist) Priest's residences in later medieval Ireland - Patrick Nugent (Archaeologist) The dynamics of parish formation in high medieval and late~medieval Clare - Henry A. Jefferies (Thornhill College, Derry) Parishes and pastoral care in the early Reformation - ~Raymond Gillespie (NUI, Maynooth) Urban parishes in early seventeenth century Ireland: the case of Dublin - Rolf Loeber and Magda Stouthamer-Loeber (University of Pittsburgh) Kildare Hall, the Countess of Kildare's patronage of the Jesuits, and the liturgical setting of Catholic worship in early seventeenth-century Dublin - Eamonn Cotter (Archaeologist) Architectural change and the parish church in post-Reformation Cork - Rowena Dudley (Independent Scholar) The Dublin parish, 1660-1730 - Toby Barnard (Hertford College, Oxford) The eighteenth century parish - ~William Roulston (Ulster Historical Foundation) The role of the parish in building and maintaining Anglican churches in the north of Ireland, 1660-1740

A wealth of information on the wildlife, stories and history of the islands.For those wishing to visit in small boats or kayaks there are details of:? Landings? Camping? Drinking water? Tidal informationOileain is a detailed guide to almost every Irish offshore island. The guide is comprehensive, describing over 300 islands, big and small, far out to sea and close in by the shore, inhabited and uninhabited. Oileain tells it as it is, rock by rock, good and bad, pleasant and otherwise. It concentrates on landings and access generally, then adds information on camping, drinking water, tides, history, climbing, birds, whales, dolphins, legends or anything else of interest.Oileain will, I hope, appeal to all who go to sea in small boats, divers and yachtsmen as well as kayakers. The sheer level of detail contained in Oileain must surely throw new light on places they thought they knew well. It is not a book about kayaking. It so happens that a practical way of getting to islands is by kayak, and that is how the author gets about. Scuba divers and RIBs get in close too. Yachtsmen get about better than most, and they too enjoy exploring intensively from a dinghy. With the increasing availability of ferries, boatless people will also enjoy Oileain. Offshore islands are the last wilderness in Ireland. Hillwaking is now so popular that there are few untrampled mainland hills. Ninety per cent of offshore islands are uninhabited outside of the first fortnight in August, and eighty per cent even then. You won't meet many other people, if any at all, out beyond an Irish surf line. It is a time of change though, and holiday homes are very much the coming thing in some offshore areas. Sea going will never stop being a great adventure. Therefore, offshore islands are still the preserve of the very few. Now is a golden era for exploration.