The Institute of Irish Studies’ Leverhulme Fellow, Dr Stephen Hewer, recently published a book on the legal status of different groups in medieval Ireland. The Institute hosted a book launch on 16 March. Here, he details the processes of making the book and some of the major findings.
The book is a thorough re-examination of the legal status of minorities in the English-controlled parts of Ireland, c.1250-1320. It is a discovery of the (large) limits of the English court records as sources for social and cultural studies of medieval Ireland. Many people might guess that a medieval court roll is a boring and dry record of lawyers arguing over 1 acre of land – sometimes they are! – but the records also are a window into an otherwise hidden society.
READ FURTHER AT University of Liverpool Institute of Irish Studies