The Archaeology and Architecture of Monasteries in Ireland, 1100-1600 - Tadhg O'Keeffe

The Archaeology and Architecture of Monasteries in Ireland, 1100-1600 - Tadhg O'Keeffe

Chapter 2 The anthropology of regular life

The Archaeology and Architecture of Monasteries in Ireland, 1100-1600 - Tadhg O'Keeffe

Tadhg O'Keeffe [+-]
UCD School of Archaeology
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I am a first-generation Dubliner; my late father was born in Kilworth, county Cork, and my mother in Tullamore, county Offaly. I graduated from UCD with a BA (1st class hons) in Archaeology and Geography in 1983. Encouraged by Professor Michael Herity, I successfully completed the two-year MA in Archaeology in one year (1984; 1st class hons), for which I was awarded the NUI's three-year Travelling Studentship in Archaeology. I went to the University of Durham in 1985-86 (where Professors Rosemary Cramp and Brian Roberts of the Departments of Archaeology and Geography respectively provided inspirational mentorship and still-appreciated friendship), the Courtauld Institute of Art in the University of London in 1986-87, and the Centre d'Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale, Université de Poitiers, in 1987-88 (where Professors Piotr Skubiszewski and Marie-Thérèse Camus were as kind as they were erudite). In 1988 I was awarded a DEA in the History of Art by Poitiers. I returned to UCD in 1988 for my PhD in Archaeology, for which I was very pleased to have Prof. Herity as supervisor, and I presented my thesis, Irish Romanesque Architecture and Architectural Sculpture, in 1991, with Dr Richard Gem as the external examiner. I joined the Department (now School) of Archaeology in UCD as a post-doctoral Newman Scholar in 1994. I achieved my ambition to teach in academia when I was appointed to a temporary lectureship (to teach the Bronze Age!) in 1996 and a permanent lectureship (to teach medieval archaeology) in 1998. I was promoted to Senior Lecturer four years later, and to Associate Professor four years later again. For three years (2004-6) I was Director of the UCD International Summer School. I was awarded a UCD President's Research award in 2002-3 and an IRCHSS Senior Research Fellowship in 2008-9, and was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA) in 2007. I was the Head of the School of Archaeology from 2011-2014, and I am currently Deputy Principal in the College of Arts & Celtic Studies.

Description

The essence of monasticism is regulation: a prescribed rule is followed. The essence of a monastic settlement is also regulation: monastic buildings follow a consistent spatial pattern. The submission of individuals to regulated life is intrinsically interesting, and is made more interesting by evidence of the strategies – the sign language in silent orders, for example – that monastics adopted to survive, even subvert, regulation. This chapter considers the concept and reality of regulated community life through the lens of anthropological theory.

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Citation

O'Keeffe, Tadhg. Chapter 2 The anthropology of regular life. The Archaeology and Architecture of Monasteries in Ireland, 1100-1600. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. Nov 2026. ISBN 9781781792056. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=24179. Date accessed: 10 Oct 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.24179. Nov 2026

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