This volume contains a wealth of new research on Dublin's medieval past,
including paired papers by Joseph Harbison and Rene Gapert that
re-examine skulls found on the site of the Hospital of St John the
Baptist, Thomas Street. Alan Hayden reports on his excavation of
property plots fronting onto Kevin Street and New Street and what they
tell us about the supposed fourteenth-century decline of Dublin, and
Aisling Collins explains the significant findings from the dig of the
church and graveyard at St James's. Antoine Giacometti examines a
medieval tanning quarter that showcases leatherworking and shoemaking in
medieval Dublin, complementing work by John Nicholl that analyses
footwear styles in the late medieval city based on evidence excavated
from Chancery Lane. This aspect of life is illustrated too in the
findings of Paul Duffy's excavations in Thomas Street, which reveal a
great deal about crafts in the western suburb of medieval Dublin. Franc
Myles reports on the findings of his excavation at Keysar's Lane beside
St Audeon's church in High Street, including some fascinatingly
decorated medieval floor tiles; Jon Stirland reports on the discovery of
two parallel ditches of possible early medieval/medieval date located to
the rear of nos 19-22 Aungier Street; and Edmond O'Donovan describes his
discoveries while excavating in the internal courtyard at the site of
the Bank of Ireland at College Green, marked on Speed's 1610 map of
Dublin as 'the hospital.' Historical papers include Denis Casey's
analysis of Dublin's economy in its twelfth-century Irish context and
Brian Coleman's study of taxation and resistance in fifteenth-century
Dublin. Thomas W. Smith shines light on papal provisions to
ecclesiastical benefices in thirteenth-century Dublin, while Stephen
Hewer examines the oldest surviving original court roll of the Dublin
bench, dating from 1290.
