
Originally commenced as a collaborative research project between the Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute for the Study of Irish History and Civilisation, University College Dublin, University College Cork, Trinity College Dublin and the Discovery Programme, Monastic Ireland received funding from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Fáilte Ireland and a Seed Funding grant from UCD. Then in 2013, the project was awarded a major research grant under the Irish Research Council’s Advanced Research Project Grant Initiative, which came to completion in August 2016. Since then, the project has focused on the development of the project website, publications and continued research with Dr Edel Bhreathnach leading the team of Drs Keith Smith and Annejulie Lafaye, while continuing the collaboration with Dr Malgorzata D’Aughton of UCC.
The primary focus from March 2014 to August 2016 had been on Monastic Ireland: Landscape and Settlement, the Irish Research Council funded phase of the project. This multidisciplinary project was an examination of the impact of rural and urban monastic settlement in Ireland between 1000-1700, through a combination of traditional historical and archaeological research and analysis with cutting edge geophysical surveying.