Beyond Exclusion in Medieval Ireland: Intersections of Ethnicity, Sex and Society under English Law, by Stephen Hewer

The central theme of Stephen Hewer’s monograph is the legal status of Gaelic people in thirteenth-century Ireland, especially those living in that part of Ireland that was under the control of the English administration. The author compares their experience to that of the community in Ireland that identified itself as English. The first two chapters deal with the ‘unfree’ Irish and free Gaelic men. The third chapter is devoted to Gaelic women, which is commendable since women are often neglected in monographs like this and the topic still has not received the attention it deserves, aside from work done by Gillian Kenny, Dianne Hall and Sparky Booker. The next two chapters examine legal discriminations and other ethnic groups living in Ireland. The sixth chapter looks at criminal cases, the standout chapter of the book in my opinion. Criminal cases are intrinsically interesting, and they tell us a lot about people who you would not normally encounter in medieval sources, and I feel that Hewer stays truer to the sources in this chapter and allows them to speak for themselves. The final chapter looks at the legal status of Gaelic clerics.

On several occasions, Hewer claims that, until the publication of this book, certain aspects of thirteenth-century Ireland have been overlooked. And on some level, I agree with him, but there certainly is a tendency on his part to exaggerate the scholarly lacunae. The book is far more heavily reliant on previous research than he would like to admit, and he has not used many unpublished record sources, aside from the plea rolls. I appreciate that, since the book is about the legal status of the Gaelic Irish, the plea rolls are the most important source, but the research would have been enriched by the inclusion of other documentary records.

Regrettably, Hewer tends to be rather dismissive of other scholars. For example, in Chapter Three he describes Gillian Kenny’s previous research on medieval women as a ‘useful introduction’ and an ‘overview,’ claiming that he would be looking at the same topic using ‘original research,’ as if Kenny’s research was not original or innovative. Notwithstanding his claims, Hewer’s chapter on women really does not bring anything substantially new or exceptionally useful to the table. On p. 97 he declares that women rarely held administrative offices, such as that of attorney, and then on the next page he contradicts himself by asserting that the existence of women attorneys demonstrated that the education of women was more widespread than previous scholars have concluded. He suggests, in the introduction of the book, that the Irishwoman Órlaith Inghean Mheic Briain was a mounted soldier; I checked the justiciary roll entry that mentions Órlaith and nowhere does it imply this. Hewer needs to clearly state that this is conjecture, and not pass it off as fact.

One peculiarity of the book—highlighting the author’s desire to break new intellectual boundaries—is calling sheriffs ‘viscounts’. Hewer appears to believe that sheriffs were not called ‘sheriffs’ in the medieval period, even though there are plentiful examples of the Old/Middle English cognate word being used in documentary sources in the thirteenth-century and before, not only in documents written in vernacular English, but those written in Latin too. Moreover, the Irish word for sheriff, which can be found in sources in Irish from this period, is sirriam, which comes from the English word sheriff and not the French word vicomte. Hewer’s decision to use viscount is thus perplexing. He also ethnically misidentifies some sheriffs and other officials. For instance, on p. 87 he claims that Simon Muridac (Murdac), who served as both sheriff of Dublin and constable of Dublin Castle, was Gaelic Irish, but this is simply not true. Simon Murdac came from Oxfordshire and the Murdac family was prominent in England from at least the end of the eleventh century. One of its most successful members, Henry Murdac, served as both abbot of Fountains Abbey and archbishop of York in the twelfth century. During the period when Simon Murdac served as sheriff of Dublin a century later, the administration was reluctant to appoint local Englishmen as sheriff, so the idea that they would appoint a Gaelic man is implausible and it demonstrates at best a blinkered understanding of thirteenth-century Ireland. Even if Murdac sounds like a Gaelic name, it is important to exhaust all avenues of investigation before making that assumption. Hewer also asserts that Roger Roth, sheriff of Uriel in 1301, was another Gael, claiming that Roth was the Latin rendering of the Gaelic name Ruad. Roth is, in fact, an English surname and members of this family served as mayors of Drogheda during the fourteenth century. He also believes that Peter Abraham, who was mayor of Dublin in 1258, was Gaelic Irish, again with no definitive evidence—Abraham is another surname that can be plentifully found in English sources. There is no indication that any of these men were Gaels, but he uses these examples in a misguided attempt to disprove Robin Frame’s claim that Gaelic men did not hold positions of power in the English administration of Ireland during the thirteenth century. Hewer’s tendency to assume ethnicity based on surname is a severe shortcoming of the book, illustrated by these and many more examples. It is not the reader’s job to check these sources to see if they stand up to scrutiny. Moreover, the index serves no practical purpose since people are indexed under their first name.

Some interesting ideas underpin this book, and it is to be hoped that they can be further explored with more rigorous archival research in future. Accountability must also lie with the publisher—the patently flawed use of archival material here poses serious questions about peer review and editorial process.