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Between 2014 and 2024, the Galway Archaeological Field School undertook a research excavation at Isert Kelly Castle in Kilchreest, Co Galway. The tower house at Isert Kelly was built by the MacHubert Burkes in the early 1400s and it replaced their earlier castle at Castleboy as their principal seat. It was extensively refurbished in the early 1600s, but fell into disuse later in that century. This talk will explore current thinking on Irish tower houses and outline how field-based research can contribute to our understanding of the role of tower houses played as the dominant building at the centre of a larger castle complexes. The excavations at Isert Kelly, undertaken within the bawn or courtyard, led to the discovery of a late medieval hall and several other buildings, a well, a postern gateway, and extensive cobbled surfaces, along with thousands of artefacts and large quantities of environmental material including animal bones and molluscan material. These excavations have the potential to change our understanding of how tower houses functioned as centres of economic and social life in late medieval Ireland. Dr Rory Sherlock is an archaeologist who specialises in the study of medieval and post-medieval Irish buildings and landscapes. He has worked in… Read the rest

In this address, Gary Murphy, author of the bestselling and widely acclaimed biography of the late Taoiseach, Charles J. Haughey, will reassess Haughey’s role in the making of modern Ireland. His talk will explore Haughey’s role at heart of Irish political life for over three and a half decades and examine his still controversial legacy. Charles Haughey was arguably the most talented and influential politician of his generation. His presence still looms large over Irish politics, yet the very roots of his success – his charisma, his intelligence, his ruthlessness, his secrecy – rendered almost impossible any objective evaluation of his life and work. Gary Murphy rectified this in his widely praised biography of Haughey. Based on exclusive access to Haughey’s archive and interviews with dozens of Haughey’s contemporaries, his talk will offer a major reassessment of one of Ireland’s most significant and controversial politicians and a view of a man of prodigious gifts, who, for all his flaws and many contradictions, came to define modern Ireland. Gary Murphy is Professor of Politics in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He has held visiting professorships at the University of… Read the rest