About StaffNiall Brady

Niall Brady
Medieval Rural Settlement Project Director

Contact Details

Telephone: +353 1 639 3723
Email: niall@discoveryprogramme.ie

Biography

Dr. Niall Brady read Archaeology and Geography at the National University of Ireland, Dublin (BA 1983), and went on to investigate agrarian technology in the Early Christian/Medieval periods (MA 1986). He was subsequently awarded a Finnish Government fellowship and spent most of 1987 as a researcher in the Etnologiska Institutionen, Åbo Akademi, Finland, where he reflected on agrarian and maritime matters in the Nordic countries. In 1989, he began his doctoral researches in the Medieval Studies Program at Cornell University (MA 1993, Ph.D 1996) where he focussed on the study of grain barns in late medieval England as reflections of social behaviour as well as buildings to serve agricultural purposes. Dr. Brady was appointed Visiting Assistant Professor to the History Department (Medieval) at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut (1996-1997), and was a faculty member of Shoals Marine Laboratory, New Hampshire (1990-1997), where he lectured on Underwater Archaeology. Upon returning to Ireland in 1997, Dr. Brady worked with Valerie J Keeley Ltd., Archaeological Consultancy, and was founding director of The Archaeological Diving Company Ltd. His work is published widely in local and international journals and volumes. In his position as Director for the Discovery Programme’s Medieval Rural Settlement Project since 2002, Dr. Brady is responsible for the overall project design and its delivery, with special responsibility for both the southeast module and the excavations in Tulsk.

Publications

Discovering Irish Medieval Landscapes (Discovery Programme, 2003).

  • ‘Mills in medieval Ireland: looking beyond design’, in Steve Walton (ed.), Wind and Water in the Middle Ages. Fluid technologies from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2006), 39-68.
  • ‘Personifying the Gael: something of a challenge for archaeologists’, Eolas: The Journal of the American Society for Irish Medieval Studies, 1 (2006), 8-26.
  • with McNeary, R., and Shanahan, B., 'A new study of land enclosure and settlement in north Roscommon' in the Journal of the Roscommon Historical and Archaeological Society 10 (2006), 99-104.
  • with O’Conor, K., ‘The later medieval usage of crannogs in Ireland’, Proceedings of Ruralia V (2005), 127-136.    
  • with Paul Gibson, ‘The Earthwork at Tulsk, Co. Roscommon: Topographic and Geophysical Survey and Preliminary Excavation’, Discovery Programme Reports 7 (2005), 63-90.
  • 'The Gothic barns of England: icons of prestige and authority,' in Technology and Resource Use in Medieval Europe: Cathedrals, Mills, and Mines, Eds. Elizabeth Smith and Michael Wolfe (Ashgate, Hampshire 1997): 76-105.
  • 'De Oratorio: Hisperic Famina and church building', Peritia 11 (1997): 327-335.
  • 'Labor and agriculture in early medieval Ireland: evidence from the sources,' in The Work of Work: Servitude, Slavery, and Labor in Medieval England, Eds. A. Frantzen and D. Moffat (Cruithne Press, Glasgow), 1994: 128-149.
  • 'Reconstructing a medieval Irish plough,' in Primeras Jornadas Sobre Technologia Agraria Tradicional, Ed. Direccíon Gral. de Bellas Artes y Archivos (Madrid), 1993: 31-44.
  • 'Early ard pieces in Finnish museums,' Tools and Tillage  6 (1990): 158-175, 187.
  • 'The plough pebbles of Ireland,' Tools and Tillage  6 (1988): 47-60.
  • 'A late ploughshare type from Ireland,' Tools and Tillage  5 (1987): 228-242.

Notes

  • ‘The Discovery Programme’s Medieval Rural Settlement Project, 2002-2008’, Medieval Rural Settlement Group, Annual Report 18 (2003), 23-26.
  • 'Mesolithic Hunters and Medieval Folk in Clane, Co. Kildare', Oughterany 2.1 (1999): 21-22.
  • 'Fifty years a-ploughing,' Archaeology Ireland 8 (1994): 15-17.
  • 'A glimpse of early Irish agriculture,' Archaeology Ireland  4 (1990): 18-19.
  • 24 entries, in Kilian: Mönch aus Irland - Aller Franken Patron 689-1989. Katalog, Ed. Mainfränkisches Museum (Würzburg), 1989: 151-171.

 

Professional

Dr. Brady sits on the councils of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, The Society for Medieval Archaeology, and Ruralia.