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Mayo Historical & Archaeological Society in association
Prof. Raymond Gillespie. History Dept., NUI Maynooth.
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with the Heritage Studies Dept., GMIT., Castlebar will host an illustrated lecture 'Early Mayo Manuscripts', to be given by Prof. Raymond Gillespie on Thursday, March 20th at 8pm, the venue being the GMIT Campus, Westport Road, Castlebar.
Raymond Gillespie teaches in the Dept. of History, NUI Maynooth. He has written extensively on Ireland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His particular interest is local history and he has edited, with Castlebarman Gerard P. Moran, 'A various country - essays in Mayo history, 1500-1900'. He is the author of a large number of historical books as well as contributing many articles to historical journals at home and abroad..
Those who lived in Mayo in the past have left behind them fragments of their world. Archaeologists dig up their pots and pans and study their monuments while historians read the documents they wrote. What often falls between these two possibilities is the study of manuscripts not for what they say, but as artefacts of a lost world.
Who wrote them, why were they written, who owned them and what uses were they put to in the world ? If we can answer some of these questions then we might be able to understand a great deal more about the world in which those manuscripts were made. Since most people could not read or write, manuscripts were special, and hence were expensive and prized items made for particular reasons and treasured by those who owned them.
This lecture looks at the manuscripts that were made in early modern Mayo, and asks why were they made, by whom, and for what reason. As a result, we will meet medical doctors, Gaelic lords and lawyers, all of whom used manuscripts in their daily lives.
An examination of the Seanchas Búrcach , a unique and beautifully colourful 16th century history of the DeBurgos, will form part of this most interesting lecture.
All are welcome.
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