Queen’s University, Belfast, will be hosting the 34th Irish Conference of Medievalists on 25-27 June 2020. The Call for Papers is now open (closing date 22 March). Proposals on any aspect of medieval studies are invited and presentations should last 20 minutes (+ 10 minutes for discussion). More information via the link...

http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/ael/Discover/Conferences/34thIrishConferenceofMedievalists/

If you’re within travelling-distance of Bellaghy, it would be great to see you at Seamus Heaney HomePlace on Wednesday, 19 February, where eDIL will be joining members of the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project and others for 'Bogland & Blackberries - Place-names, Languages & Landscapes'. The event will be hosted by UTV’s Joe Mahon. Time is 7-8.30pm. Tickets are here:

https://nisciencefestival.com/event.php?e=63

Trees and branches, genealogies, broadcasting and a pseudonym for the first President of Ireland... Our blog on CRAOBH spreads far and wide!

https://www.ria.ie/news/publications-focloir-stairiuil-na-gaeilge/cutting-room-floor-history-ireland-104-words

The second instalment in our series ‘From the Cutting-Room Floor’ looks at how AMADÁN ‘a fool’ developed from AMMAIT ‘a supernatural woman’ …

https://www.ria.ie/news/publications-focloir-stairiuil-na-gaeilge/cutting-room-floor-history-ireland-102-words

To celebrate the reprint of 'A History of Ireland in 100 Words' we're releasing a few bonus entries - material that was written for the book but never used. The series is called 'From the Cutting-Room Floor' and No. 101 is 'cró':

http://bit.ly/2YDN8nh

Very pleased to see 'A History of Ireland in 100 Words' BACK IN STOCK! Sincere apologies if you have had to wait to receive your copy. Anyone still wishing to get their hands on the book can order now and receive it in time for Christmas: https://www.ria.ie/history-ireland-100-words

Inordinately pleased to be contributing to 'Bogland & Blackberries - Place-names, Languages & Landscapes' as part of the Northern Ireland Science Festival 2020. Hosted by Joe Mahon and taking place at Seamus Heaney HomePlace, Bellaghy, Co. Derry on Wednesday 19 February, this event will will explore the local names and the places that inspired works like Heaney’s 'Bogland'. We would love to see you there. Booking is now live!

https://nisciencefestival.com/event.php?e=63

Love this! You can flick through 'A History of Ireland in 100 Words' on the website of the Royal Irish Academy. All of the Academy stock has actually been snapped up already but books will be available again from 10 December; in the meantime, you can still pre-order for Christmas 🥳

https://www.ria.ie/history-ireland-100-words-pre-order-arrives-10-dec

Photo from Re-Jigged Festival on Instagram! 😂😍

Can hardly express how much we enjoyed the 'Writing the Script' workshop which we gave last Friday as part of the Dublin Book Festival. Room packed with well-informed, interested and generous people. Thanks so much to everyone who came along; we could have stayed all evening!

On the day that 'A History of Ireland in 100 Words' is officially launched, you can read about 10 (or so!) of the words which feature in it in thejournal.ie today. Letters, drunkenness and more - these extracts differ from those published in the Irish Times at the weekend.

https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/extract-history-of-ireland-10-words-4887904-Nov2019/?amp=1&__twitter_impression=true

CAST YOUR VOTE! We have gained a lot of new followers in the last couple of weeks and some of you may not know that ‘A History of Ireland in 100 Words’ has been shortlisted for ‘Best Irish-Published Book’ in the An Post Irish Book Awards. Voting closes tomorrow at 6pm (Ireland-time!), so if you’ve enjoyed the book, please cast a vote for the wonderful (and sometimes weird) Irish words past and present. Link below. GRMMA

https://irishbookawards.irish/vote2019/

'A History of Ireland in 100 Words', written by members of the eDIL team, features on the cover and inside today's Irish Times Magazine. We're thrilled and a little stunned! In case you are not in a position to pick up a copy of the magazine, the extracts are also available online:

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/béarla-punt-fliuch-a-history-of-ireland-in-10-little-words-1.4069438?mode=amp

One of our favourite images from ‘A History of Ireland in 100 Words’ – a turkey in a travel-bag, to illustrate CEARC FHRANCACH ‘French hen’, a term which (in one form or another) has been used in Gaelic languages to refer to the turkey since that bird first made its way to these islands in the sixteenth century.

Huge thanks to everyone who came along to Thyme and Co. café in Ballycastle on Friday night to hear Greg Toner talk about ‘A History of Ireland in 100 Words’. Hope that those who bought and ordered copies of the book are enjoying (and will enjoy) the stories! And thanks also to Thyme and Co. for hosting.

Great piece in today's Irish Times, in which Prof. Máire Ní Mhaonaigh writes about printing, learning, hairstyles, shoes and much, much more:

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tuarascáil/nasc-sanasa%C3%ADochta-le-stair-na-héireann-1.4069379?mode=amp

Originally, we released only a limited number of tickets for our workshop at the Dublin Book Festival, but those sold out really quickly, so we've increased capacity and released some more. The workshop is called 'Writing the Script: Letters and literacy in Medieval Ireland'. It's in collaboration with calligrapher Tim O'Neill. And it's at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin on 15 Nov. If you missed out last time, tickets are here: http://bit.ly/2q6Aznb

"The Morrígan demonstrates the ability to shape-shift into an astonishing array of forms: we see her as an eel, a wolf, a cow, and an old woman. It is as a black bird that she is most familiar, however. In this form, she hovers above the battlefield or gloats amongst corpses on the ground"

The Royal Irish Academy's 'Halloween special: ominous birds and banshees':

https://www.ria.ie/news/publications-focloir-stairiuil-na-gaeilge/halloween-special-ominous-birds-and-banshees

One of the words discussed in our ‘History of Ireland in 100 Words’ book is CREACH, which over the centuries has been variously used to talk about plundering, raiding, ruin, cauterizing and tattoos. Following up on that, here’s a short interview which manages to cover both the Gaelic exclamation ‘mo chreach ’s a thàinig’ and medieval references to tattooing!

https://gaelic.co/medieval-gaelic-tattooing/

Friends, we need your help. As you might know, ‘A History of Ireland in 100 Words’ - the general-interest book written by members of the eDIL team - has been shortlisted for ‘Best Irish-published Book of 2019’ at the An Post Irish Book Awards. Now, we need votes! If you have a few moments to spare, please support the book and the work we do in bringing medieval Irish to a wider audience, by voting via the link below. IS BUIDI LEND (SCano 119)

https://irishbookawards.irish/vote2019/

'Whiskey, dancing, insults: the history of Ireland in 100 words'. A glimpse inside the general-interest book, written by members of the eDIL team, which is out this month. Enjoy!

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2019/1021/1084677-whiskey-dancing-insults-the-history-of-ireland-in-100-words/