This thesis provides a critical history of Emly, a prominent ecclesiastical institution in central Munster purportedly founded by St Ailbe in the fifth or sixth century. While it is a common refrain that Emly was the most important church in early medieval Munster, it has yet to receive a dedicated critical study. The thesis embraces the institution as its basis of inquiry, and the approach taken is to bring together a broad range of sources to better understand the institution’s history and to set it into the context of early Munster, and indeed early Irish, history. Emly’s role as an intellectual centre and its role in producing texts is outlined and these textual outputs form a key foundation for the study itself. Evidence for Emly’s participation in ecclesiastical networks and its relationship with other ecclesiastical institutions is considered and the emergence of individuals and genealogical communities within Emly is unpacked and these are set into Emly’s local and regional contexts. This all provides a firm basis for integrating Emly into Munster’s political and ecclesiastical history and for using this close study as an opportunity to reassess elements of Munster’s medieval history. Notably, Emly’s developing relationship with royal actors is examined with an eye to isolating the influence that the institution had on the mechanics and articulation of kingship in medieval Munster and how its position changed over time. Moreover, Emly’s role within Munster’s ecclesiastical infrastructure is assessed and its interactions with the prominent northern institution of Armagh, which has loomed large in readings of Emly’s history, is reassessed. On a broader level, the thesis is concerned with how political activity on the part of ecclesiastical institutions in relation to royal and dynastic actors should be conceptualised. Where the institution’s engagements with royal actors grounded in institutional goals and in an identifiable institutional identity, or was Emly’s role as a ‘political actor’ simply directed by the emergence of embedded dynastic elements with links to royal power within the institutional structure?

The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 is designed to ground Emly at the forefront of the thesis. It delineates an ‘Emly corpus’ of texts and explores the institution’s capacity as an intellectual centre. It provides reflections on its scale and status and argues that Emly cultivated an ‘institutional identity’ mediated through the figure of Ailbe. Chapter 2 then brings together the scattered evidence for Emly’s history before the turn into the eighth century. While the nature of the material militates against the construction of a full narrative, there is evidence that Emly was an emerging centre of intellectual and political importance by the seventh century and that it participated in key ecclesiastical debates and, perhaps, was a key actor in establishing an Eóganacht political framework from the later seventh century. Chapter 3, focusing on the period before 820, examines the emergence of dynastic elements within the abbacy and Emly’s interactions with its local and regional contexts. Emly’s relationship with the Eóganachta comes to the fore during the reign of Cathal mac Finguine (713/21-42) and the emergence of Artrí mac Cathail in 793. It is argued that Emly participated in the ordinatio of Artrí and thus played a key role in the mechanics and articulation of Munster kingship. Chapter 4 focuses on the period of the cleric-kings of Cashel (820-908). Each cleric-king is provisioned with an individual prosopography and their emergence is set into context. It is argued that the emergence of the cleric-kings extends from the ordinatio and the rise of a key dynasty at Emly and Cashel, Síl Garbáin, is unpacked. Chapter 5 provides a re-assessment of the Armagh-Emly relationship drawing primarily, but not exclusively, upon the vitae of Patrick and Ailbe and deconstructs an Armagh-centric reading of Vita Albei. Finally, Chapter 6 outlines Emly’s trajectory following the collapse of the Eóganacht hegemony in Munster and the rise of the Dál Cais and argues for a more nuanced approach to the relationship.

While this thesis puts the institution at the forefront, it will be shown that close studies of individual centres such as Emly provide an opportune lens through which to advance our understanding of other aspects of Irish political, ecclesiastical, and literary history. The thesis, therefore, implicitly makes the case for ‘institutional histories’ as a productive approach to medieval Irish history.