The Irish Sea in the Middle Ages Research Network

The 'Irish Sea in the Middle Ages' Research Network was established because of the obvious centrality to the history of the whole of the British Isles in the middle ages or the regions around the Irish Sea: regions in which Liverpool and Merseyside occupy a pivotal position.

It was here that the greatest level of interaction took place between peoples, cultures and languages, here where political allegiance was most fluid and the political fate of the Isles decided, here where identities were most explicitly contested and defined.

Collaboration and events

Given the current relevance of political allegiance and national or quasi-national identities, the time seems ripe to give greater coherence to the scholarship on this region in that period. The network is a collaboration with colleagues in an expanding number of institutions - universities, public sector and local heritage groups - in the UK, the Republic of Ireland and North America. It brings together scholars from a range of disciplines, including History, Archaeology, Historical Geography, Language and Literature and Genetic Anthropology. Within the University of Liverpool, it includes colleagues across the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. 

Since 2014, the network has arranged a series of events aimed at promoting inter-regional, international and interdisciplinary perspectives on the Irish Sea region in the period c.400 - 1500 CE.