This is the first fully-documented history of Ireland and the Irish from Saint Patrick to the Vikings. Other books cover either a longer period (up to the Anglo-Norman conquests) or do not indicate in detail the evidence on which they are based. The book opens with the Irish raids and settlements in Britain, and the conversion of Ireland to Christianity, and ends as Viking attacks on Ireland accelerated in the second quarter of the ninth century.

In 451 CE the Council of Chalcedon was called to assert the his translation of the main Irish annalistic text up to 911 is designed to make early Irish history more accessible to students of Irish history. The contents of the text constitutes the principal narrative source for carly Irish history, providing a fascinating insight into the religious, social and political evolution of Ireland and its people during this period. From 431 to 740 this vital source of early Irish history was written on the small island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland. From then it was contained at monastery in the Irish midlands (most probably in Brega). This new two-volume translation is accompanied by a thorough introduction that places the annals of Ireland within a larger historical context. The Chronicle of Ireland is an informative and accessible introduction to the history of ancient Ireland for both students and scholars of Irish history. Built up from various individual writings, The Chronicle of Ireland is a truly unique book and is as important to the history of Ireland as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles is to the history of Britain.

This is a major comparative study of early Irish and Welsh kinship. Kinship is a central element in all human societies and was of particular significance in early medieval Ireland and Wales where government institutions were, in general, weak. T. M. Charles-Edwards examines the forms of kinship found in Ireland and Wales at the earliest periods for which documentation is sufficient (the seventh century for Ireland and the twelfth through thirteenth centuries for Wales). His analysis of kinship vocabulary and careful consideration of the available evidence enables him to take the discussion back to earlier periods. This is the first extended scholarly treatment of the topic. It is an intensively researched, erudite, and fascinating study of the interplay of tradition and innovation in the development of kinship from the prehistoric to the medieval period.

The Chronicle of Ireland is the principal source for the history of events not only in Ireland itself but also in what is now Scotland up to 911. It incorporated annals compiled on Iona up to c. 740 - a monastery which played a major role in the history of Ireland, of the Picts to its east and, from 635 to 664, of Northumbria. Up to c. 740 the Chronicle is thus a crucial source for both Ireland and Britain; and from c. 740 to 911 it still records some events outside Ireland. The text of the Chronicle is best preserved in the Annals of Ulster, but it was also transmitted through chronicles derived from a version made at the monastery of Clonmacnois in the Irish midlands. This translation is set out so as to show at a glance what text is preserved in both branches of the tradition and what is in only one.

This book provides a fully documented history of Ireland and the Irish between the fourth and ninth centuries AD, from St Patrick to the Vikings - the earliest period for which historical records are available. It opens with the Irish raids and settlements in Britain, and the conversion of Ireland to Christianity. It ends as Viking attacks on Ireland accelerated in the second quarter of the ninth century. The book takes account of the Irish both at home and abroad, including the Irish in northern Britain, in England and on the continent. Two principal thematic strands are the connection between the early Irish Church and its neighbours, and the rise of Ui Neill and the kingship of Tara.