This event, which will be spread over Friday 11th (16:00-21:00) and Saturday 12th (09:30-16:30) October 2019, seeks to highlight information concerning the extensive network of connections that the earls of Ormond had with their counterparts at the English Court and further afield and to explore the impact of such cultural proximity on their patronage of the arts during the early modern period c.1490–1614. It will also feature information about Kilkenny merchant families and their buildings, their connections with fellow merchants in Bristol, Antwerp and elsewhere.

DAY I – Friday Programme

16.00 A walking tour, commencing at Kilkenny Castle, of the late Medieval Houses and Inns of Kilkenny led by Amanda Pitcairn MA(Independent tour guide).

16.45 Visit to Rothe House, Kilkenny (Courtesy Kilkenny Archaeological Society), A tour of the house and garden.

17.30–18.00 Walk back to castle visiting St. Mary’s Church (Renamed The Medieval Mile Museum Courtesy of Kilkenny Civic Trust) on the way.

18.30 Launch of Weekend programme;

ACADEMIC SESSION I – The Town

Chair: Mary Heffernan, (Manager, Dublin Castle, National Historic Properties, OPW).

18.45 Dr. Maurice Hurley, The Kilkenny Merchant’s House – the Irish Urban context.

Questions.

19.25 Julian Munby BA FSA (Oxford). From Kilkenny to Bristol and back: new work on the Liber Primus of Kilkenny.

Questions

RECEPTION

DAY II – Saturday Programme

09.30 Registration, The Parade Tower Kilkenny Castle

ACADEMIC SESSION II – THE MERCHANTS

Chair: Conleth Manning (Independent)

10.00 Dr. Linda Doran (University College Dublin): William Marshall and the establishment of the port of New Ross.

10.30 Dr. Susan Flavin (University of Dublin, Trinity College): Commodities and Commerce: Kilkenny Merchants and the Sixteenth-Century Consumer Boom.

Questions

11.15 Coffee

ACADEMIC SESSION III – THE EARLS OF ORMOND

Chair: Ben Murtagh MA MIAI (Archaeological and Historic Building Consultant)

11.35 Keynote speaker; Dr. David Edwards (University College Cork) The earls of Ormond and the Kilkenny civic elite.

12.15 Dr. Jane Fenlon: Courtiers and Merchants; Display and Magnificence in the waning middle ages.

12.45 Dr. Danielle O’Donovan (Nano Nagle Place, Cork): Petrified Affinity – Architecture, Sculpture and the Ormond Affinity in Late Medieval Kilkenny and Tipperary.

Questions

13.30 LUNCH (self catering in town)

ACADEMIC SESSION IV – MEMORIALS

Chair: Dolores Gaffney (OPW, Kilkenny Castle)

14.30 Dr. Amy Harris (Independent) Merchant tombs in St. Mary’s – the Merchant’s Church, Kilkenny.

15.00 Dr. Oliver D. Harris, University College, London: Lines of Descent: Genealogical imagination and creativity: The Lumley and Carew monuments.

Questions

15.45 TEA

16.00 Conleth Manning: overview of papers, summing up and discussion.