The Transformation of the Irish Church in the Twelfth Century (review)

This, the twenty-ninth volume in the prestigious Studies in Celtic History series, is a worthy addition to the library of anyone interested in medieval Irish history and in the Irish church's engagement with the wider European reform movement. With chapters on sources, medieval dioceses, bishops and ecclesiastical culture, St. Malachy and monastic reform, the re-formation of lay society, and lay piety and devotion, Marie Therese Flanagan traces the development of the Irish church and church practice in the twelfth century in the course of analyzing the Irish "manifestation of a much wider European phenomenon" (p. xi). Armed with this volume and Ireland and Europe in the Twelfth Century: Reform and Renewal, ed. Damian Bracken and Dagmar Ó Riain-Raedel (Portland, OR, 2006), scholars are now well equipped with broad-based studies of this most important of developments in medieval Ireland.

Within the volume under review here, the importance of certain individuals to the broader narrative is highlighted and teased out. These include Cellach of Armagh; Gillebertus of Limerick; and, in particular, St. Malachy—the chapter devoted to his role in introducing a new monasticism is thorough, learned, and highly informative. The author makes the interesting observation (pp. 161-62) that "it is difficult to point to a major pre-twelfth-century monastery that survived without being transformed into a monastic community following either the Benedictine or Augustinian rules, into a cathedral church, into a parish church, or disappeared altogether." This shows how completely the ecclesiastical landscape was transformed in Ireland during this period.

In this study, Flanagan has scrutinized an abundance of archaeological, architectural, hagiographical, historical, and literary sources. One way in which this study can be extended is by further analysis of an even larger corpus of relevant Irish-language texts. To take just a few examples: Ruairí Ó hUiginn's reading (in Éigse 32) of Tochmarc Emire in the light of the reform agenda concerning marriage could be drawn upon here; Acallam na Senórach could be mined further, particularly considering Máire Ní Mhaonaigh's treatment (in Ireland and Europe in the Twelfth Century) of its constituent theological debates; and John de Courcy's interest in the combined cult of Patrick, Brigid, and Colm Cille in the mid-1180s (discussed on p. 223) also may be reflected in the Acallam (as pointed out by Ann Dooley in Éigse 34). Furthermore, Immram Snédgusa ₇ Maic Ríagla and associated Columban voyage narratives also are ripe for inclusion in any such study. But this is work for another day.

A particular issue in dealing with relevant Irish-language sources,however, is the problem of dating them closely. This often proves impossible to achieve. Issues raised in a seminal article by Gearóid Mac Eoin (in Proceedings of the British Academy, 68 [1982]) still remain relevant despite the advances made in the study of Middle Irish in the interim. This is an issue for some of the texts analyzed by Flanagan: thus, dating Betha Cholmáin maic Luacháin so closely (to 1122) is hard to sustain, particularly since the Life contains discrete linguistic strata; referring to the Acallam as a "mid-twelfth-century text" (pp. 23-24) would no longer reflect current thinking (see Ann Dooley in Éigse 34); and accepting the seventh-century dating of Amra Coluim Chille (p. 28) may no longer be tenable in light of the ongoing work of Jacopo Bisagni. These few examples show how treacherous the ground is for those wishing to contextualize and utilize Irish-language material within a broader historical framework.

The standard of printing and presentation throughout is high, and only a small number of mistakes and misprints are evident: thousandth anniversary (p. xi: recte nine-hundredth anniversary); O'Boyle (p. 29n141/p. 272: recte Boyle); Breatnach (p. 31n148: recte Bhreathnach); 7-6 (p. 39n20: recte 7-26); Imar (p. 43: recte...