Introductions: St Patrick and the snakes of Ireland
Saint Patrick’s Day was last week which seemed a fitting prompt to initiate this blog with a brief outline of who I am, what I do (and what it has to do with Saint Patrick). I am a first year PhD student in history at the University of Edinburgh drawn to Scotland by a long-standing fascination with the ‘Celtic’ nations of Britain. The aim here is to give you a window into my current research and allow you to share in the often weird and wonderful Medieval world (and the equally strange world of a doctoral student!). Stumbling across a momentary reference to a particularly intriguing and largely unknown event in Scottish history (the Scottish invasion of Ireland between 1315-1318) as an undergraduate student has, as is so often the case with historical research, led me down a path an unexpected winding path. A desire to know why this invasion occurred and why it was accompanied by speeches promoting a ‘Celtic’ alliance against the English has led me to my current work. Using two m