16.09.2024
Dublin Festival of History International Viking Event:
Governing Dublin in the Viking-Age
For the seventh year running, the National University of Ireland, Dublin City Council, and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ireland were pleased to collaborate and contribute a Viking-studies event to the Dublin Festival of History Programme. This year, in association with the Friends of Medieval Dublin, we were honoured to host a lecture by Professor Alex Woolf, who presented his latest research on Viking-Age Dublin.
Alex Woolf is Professor of History at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. His main interests lie in the history of Britain and Ireland before the coming of the Normans, with a bias towards the earlier part of the period, c.400-900. Particular interests include ethnic interaction and language shift, the development of political structures, and social and economic history.
Held in the Phelan Room, the lecture opened with a welcome address by Dr Emer Purcell of NUI. She began by acknowledging the leading role that the two previous ambassadors of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Dublin, Mari Skåre and Else Berit Eikeland, played in setting up and maintaining the collaboration between the Embassy, NUI, and DCC. She also welcomed Aslak Brun, the Ambassador Designate, and his wife Synnøve Roald, to the lecture. She then introduced Professor Woolf.
The lecture focused on the way Dublin developed as a community, how it governed itself and was governed by others in the course of the Viking Age, and how it transformed itself from a nest of pirates to a commercial and political hub. Kings, earls, Dubliners, subjects, and neighbours were considered.
Professor Woolf suggested that there was a clear distinction between Dubliners and political leaders associated with the Dynasty of Ivar. He also discussed Dublin society as a city corporation, noting that
The development of a corporate community allowed the people
of Dublin to weather regime change on multiple occasions...and it is
what made Dublin such a strong and thriving city through this period
and into succeeding periods.
Professor Alex Woolf
The lecture concluded with a question-and-answer session chaired by Dr Ruth Johnson, City Archaeologist of Dublin City Council.
There was a reception after the lecture, and guests were given a tour of NUI murals in the Registrar’s office, led by Eddie Smyth of NUI.
A recording of the lecture is available to view here on our website or on our Vimeo page.
The Dublin Festival of History (DFOH) takes place from 27 September to 13 October 2024
Dublin Festival of History programme
Images from the evening
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