This is a study of the history and documentary records of one of Ireland's most important early monastic communities, the familia of St Columba between the 6th and 12th centuries. The federation of Columban monasteries left three major hagiographical works: the Vita Columbae of Adomnan, the Life of Admonam, and an Irish Life of Colum Cille. The conventional literary settings in which the Columban texts are presented has tended to obscure the valuable information they contain about the circumstances and prevailing attitudes of the time.
Approaching the texts from three points of view, historical, linguistic, and literary, Dr. Herbert makes clear how the hagiography reflected, and responded to, significant events. Iona, Kells and Derry gives a unique insight into the aims and attitudes of the Columban monastic federation at critical stages in its history.
Máire Herbert lectures in Early and Medieval Irish, University College Cork. She is one of the leading specialists of Ireland in the early medieval period. She has co-editor, along with John Carey and Padraig Ó Riain, Studies in Irish hagiography: saints and scholars (FCP, 2001).
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