01.11.2016
Christ Church lecture series commemorates 800th anniversary of union of Dublin & Glendalough
A series of free lunchtime lectures marking the 800th anniversary of the union of the two dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough in 1216 will take place in Christ Church Cathedral from November 14 to 18. The lectures will be delivered during the Octave of St Laurence O’Toole, patron saint of Dublin, and will examine the union of the dioceses of Dublin & Glendalough.
The lunchtime lectures, which will take place at 1.30pm, begin on St Laurence O’Toole’s day Monday November 14, with ‘A Hiberno–Norse perspective’ on the diocesan union. This will be given by Professor Seán Duffy of the School of Histories and Humanities at Trinity College Dublin. Seán is a Fellow of TCD, a director of the Centre for Irish–Scottish and Comparative Studies, and chairman of the Friends of Medieval Dublin since 1998.
On Wednesday November 16, Dr Michael O’Neill will speak on the cathedrals of Dublin in 1216. Michael did his Ph.D. on the architecture of St Patrick’s cathedral and has been involved for many years in Christ Church’s Library and Archives committee, as part of which he has curated both an exhibition of the cathedral’s medieval stone in the north transept, and an exhibition of George Edmund Street’s restoration of the cathedral, which can still be viewed in the crypt.
Complementing the talk on the cathedrals of Dublin, Professor Rachel Moss of the Department of the History of Art and Architecture in TCD will give a paired art historical lecture on Thursday November 17 focussing on the churches of Glendalough around 1216. Rachel recently edited and mostly wrote the first volume on medieval Ireland in the Art and Architecture of Ireland series published by the Royal Irish Academy and Yale University Press. She is also the principal investigator in the Monastic Ireland, Landscape and Settlement project.
The concluding lecture, on Friday November 18, balances Professor Duffy’s opening lecture with ‘An Anglo–Norman perspective’ on the diocesan union, and will be given by Canon Professor Adrian Empey, a medieval historian and former precentor of Christ Church (2001–8). Adrian taught medieval history at Central Washington State University (1968–1972), and then joined the priesthood. He later lectured in ecclesiastical history while holding the position of the principal of the Church of Ireland Theological College, attached to Trinity College, from 2001 to his retirement in 2008. He has published widely on themes relating to Anglo–Norman settlement.
The illustration used here, is a 3D scan of the Glendalough’s market cross undertaken by the Discovery Programme. A number of features of the cross suggest that it may have been copied from an 11th–century cross of Ottonian influence, and the most logical candidate is the miraculous cross of Christ Church, reputed to be speak and to be immoveable in 12th–century writings, and most likely brought to Christ Church in the early 11th century along with relics and a martyrology which were collected in Cologne where the first two bishops of Dublin were trained as Benedicines.
Needless to say, the lectures are free and all are welcome. The series is generously supported by the Friends of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.