Research Ireland Pathway PhD Studentship

The School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS), invites applications for a four-year PhD research project, fully funded by Research Ireland as part of a Pathway Fellowship Award. The position is part of the Pathway project ‘The Lives and Miracles of St Laurence O’Toole’, led by Dr Jesse Patrick Harrington, under the mentorship of Prof Barry J. Lewis.

The project proposes the first complete critical edition, translation, and commentary for a corpus of medieval Latin texts, preserved in manuscripts in Brussels, Dublin, Oxford, Paris, and Rouen, concerning a towering figure of twelfth-century European political, religious, and social history, St Laurence O’Toole (St Laurent d’Eu, d. 1180). This little-studied corpus includes around half a dozen medieval Latin biographies, as well as three collections of approximately 250 miracles of healing and intercession for petitioners from all levels of late medieval French society, composed at the pilgrimage shrine of his burial in Eu, Seine-Maritime. The corpus represents an invaluable resource for the study of late medieval society in England, France, and Ireland, and a timely and indispensable contribution to the national and international anniversary commemorations of Laurence’s birth, death, and canonisation, that will be held in France and Ireland in 2025–2030.

The PhD researcher will be based at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and supervised by project Principal Investigator Dr Jesse Patrick Harrington (DIAS), and co-supervisor Dr Niamh Wycherley (Maynooth University). The PhD research will focus on producing an edition, translation, and study of the main Latin miracle collections (‘Miracula S. Laurentii’), composed at Eu and principally preserved in three manuscripts of the twelfth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries at the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève in Paris.

The successful candidate will be enrolled in the Structured PhD Programme in the Department of Early Irish, Maynooth University. The award includes tuition fees, €25,000 annual stipend, travel/work expense budget and graduate training.

Applicants should satisfy the following criteria:

Essential

• A first-class or upper second-class Master’s degree in Classics, Medieval History, Celtic Studies, or a cognate discipline that broadly aligns with the subject of research
• Excellent knowledge of Latin (Classical or Medieval)
• Ability to write well in English

Desirable 

• Experience editing or translating Latin texts
• Excellent communication skills
• Excellent organisational skills
• Good skills in medieval and/or early modern palaeography
• Good understanding of the Church in medieval Europe (England, France, or Ireland)
• Reading knowledge of French

The application should consist of: 

• CV.
• Cover letter (maximum 2 pages).
• Writing sample.
• Two academic references.

Candidates should submit their application to the DIAS online e-recruitment system. The closing date for applications is 23 May 2025. Successful candidates will be notified by email. For questions regarding the position, please contact Dr Jesse Harrington (jesse@celt.dias.ie).

The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies is a statutory independent research institute, established by the Irish Government in 1940. Its School of Celtic Studies boasts an exceptional international reputation in the academic study of medieval literature and philology, with a strong emphasis on the production of high-quality editions, translations, and studies of primary source texts in Latin and the Celtic languages.

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