Skip to main content

Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin

Menu Search


Trinity College Dublin By using this website you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with the Trinity cookie policy. For more information on cookies see our cookie policy.

      
Profile Photo

Dr. Mary Simms

Fellow Emeritus (History)
      
Profile Photo

Dr. Mary Simms

Fellow Emeritus (History)

 mksimms@tcd.ie

 


Born Dublin 1946; B.A. Mod. (Dubl.) History and Political Science 1969, Ph.D. (Dubl.) in Medieval History 1976, thesis title 'Gaelic lordships in Ulster in the later middle ages'. Spent six years at Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, School of Celtic Studies, as Research Scholar (1972-5), and as Junior Research Assistant surveying the extant corpus of Irish bardic poetry (1977-80). Lecturer in medieval Irish History at University College Cork 1971-2, in history departments of St Mary's College of Education, Belfast, and Carysfort College of Education, Blackrock, Co. Dublin 1975-7. Appointed as lecturer in the former Medieval History Department, Trinity College Dublin 1980, made Fellow 1990 and Senior Lecturer 1993. Elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2008. Retired 31st May 2010. Now Research Associate, Centre for Research in Medieval History, School of Histories and Humanities, Trinity College Dublin.
  Family, Church history   Gaelic lordships in Ireland and Scotland, social and political development   Medieval Ireland   The literary sources
Project Title
 The Irish Chancery Project
From
1/7/08
To
30/6/11
Summary
Member of the international steering committee for this IRCHSS-funded project (Principal Investigator Dr David Ditchburn, Associate investigators Dr Peter Crooks and Prof. Sean Duffy) which seeks to advance our understanding of the 'making of Ireland' between the high Middle Ages and the dawn of the modern era-one of the most formative periods in Ireland's past-by publishing on the web and in print an English calendar of the rolls of the medieval Irish chancery, c. 1216-1509. The chancery was a key organ of English government in medieval Ireland. Access to its records is, however, severely restricted. The original chancery rolls suffered a series of calamities from the 13th century, culminating in 1922 with the destruction of the last 123 original rolls. A Latin calendar produced by the Irish Record Commission (1828) does not compensate for their destruction: it was poorly edited and lacks an adequate critical apparatus. Moreover, it offers no English translations and the text is printed in 'record type', reflecting abbreviations in the original manuscripts. This project will remedy these deficiencies by reconstructing the chancery rolls from transcripts and calendars dating from 14th-19th centuries located in Ireland and England. The outcome will be a web-based English calendar, to be followed by a multi-volume printed edition. This project will revolutionise medieval Irish studies by providing both specialists and the general public with access to an unparalleled source of information. More generally, the project will generate interest from scholars working on administrative history in a Europe-wide context and on the 'Anglicization' of the British Isles in Middle Ages. It will also stimulate exciting comparative work across the medieval-modern divide on the adaptation (or 'creolisation') of metropolitan governing practices and values in a colonial context, and on the processes of state formation and cultural exchange in the British Isles and the early modern Atlantic world.
Funding Agency
Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Project Type
Thematic Project

Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
Basque Basic Basic Basic
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
French Fluent Medium Basic
German Fluent Medium Basic
Irish Fluent Medium Basic
Spanish Medium Basic Basic
The relationship between history writing and politics in medieval Ireland in, editor(s)Marcel Bubert , Aneignungen der Geschichte: Narrative Evidenzstrategien und politische Legitimation im europaeischen Mittelalter, Cologne, Boehlau (Brill-Gruppe), 2024, pp157 - 173, [Katharine Simms], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Banqueting and the medieval Gaelic chiefs in, editor(s)Mairtin Mac Con Iomaire, Dorothy Cashman , Irish Food History: a Companion, Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 2024, pp194 - 210, [Katharine Simms], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Katharine Simms, Mixed Marriages in Medieval Ireland, Irish Texts Society Occasional Lectures, Zoom, 2022, 2023, National Library of Ireland/Irish Texts Society, 1-25pp, Notes: [ISBN: 978-1-916930-02-5], Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Katharine Simms, Retiring bards: the motives behind the professional bards' religious compositions, Eriu, 73, 2023, p97 - 103, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Katharine Simms, Brig Brethach: "Brig of the Judgments", Irish Jurist , 67, 2022, p161 - 169, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Katharine Simms, Serfs and Citizens: the church tenants of medieval Armagh, Seanchas Ardmhacha, 27, (2), 2021, p1 - 17, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Katharine Simms, Gaelic Ulster in the Middle Ages: History, culture and society - Trinity Medieval Ireland series 4, hardback, Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2020, 1 - 552pp, Book, PUBLISHED
The Professional Historians of Medieval Ireland in, editor(s)Jennifer Jahner Emily Steiner and Elizabeth M. Tyler, , Medieval Historical Writing Britain and Ireland 500-1500, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2019, pp279 - 298, [Katharine Simms], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
The political recovery of Gaelic Ireland in, editor(s)Brendan Smith , The Cambridge History of Ireland I, 600-1550, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp272 - 299, [Katharine Simms], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Gaelic Culture and Society in, editor(s)Brendan Smith , The Cambridge History of Ireland I, 600-1550, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp415 - 440, [Katharine Simms], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
  

Page 1 of 8
Lough Neagh in medieval times: its political and social context in, editor(s)William Burke, Liam Campbell, William Roulston , Lough Neagh: an atlas of the natural, built and cultural heritage, Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2022, pp142 - 151, [Katharine Simms], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
The Literary Tradition of Ulster to the Sixteenth Century in, editor(s)Nioclas Mac Cathmhaoil, Maire Nic Cathmhaoil & Conal Mac Seain , Sugan an Duchais: aisti ar ghneithe de thraidisiun liteartha Chuige Uladh i gcuimhne ar Dhiarmaid O Doibhlin, Derry, Iriah Department, University of Ulster, 2018, pp23 - 41, [Katharine Simms], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Monaghan in the later Middle Ages in, editor(s)Patrick J. Duffy, Eamonn O Ciardha , Monaghan History and Society, Dublin, Geography Publications, 2017, pp131 - 161, [Katharine Simms], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED

  


Social history of Gaelic Ireland 1200-1500 A.D. Historical sources in the Irish language (annals, genealogies, bardic poetry, later legal commentaries). Military and ecclesiastical history of medieval Ireland.