Niall Ó Súilleabháin – Medieval Historian

Historian

Researcher

Writer

Welcome to my personal website. I am a social and economic historian of medieval Europe, currently based in Dublin, Ireland.

On this website you will find more information about me and my research, including my academic publications and my MSCA-funded project Practices of Unfreedom in Northern France, c. 888 – c. 1120 (PUNF), which ran from 2023 to 2025. The intermittently-updated blog provides news and updates on upcoming events and talks, as well as reflections on ongoing research. Finally, the contact page allows you to get in touch with me about my research or to inquire about my freelance consulting services.

Latest Blog Posts

  • Why Medieval Monasteries are Inverse Prisons

    Publication news! In the first major announcement of the week, I was delighted to receive in the post today my hard copy of a new edited volume by Stephan Conermann, Ulbe Bosma and Gijs Kessler, Households as Coercive Labour Regimes, published by De Gruyter as part of the University of Bonn’s Dependency and Slavery Studies…

  • In the margins of a medieval manuscript, a hermit makes his confession to a bishop, surrounded by nature imagery.

    Mea Culpa

    Welcome (back) to this website’s blog, in a new and improved 2026 edition! To my everlasting shame, since I set this website up in early 2024, I have managed a grand total of two (2) blog posts, combined with not a single update on my career, publications etc. This is an abysmal track record, particularly…

  • Live! In Conference!

    This is just a short post to advertise the various conferences I’ll be heading to over the next few months, both in the UK and on the Continent. First up, next weekend I’ll be speaking at the University of Lincoln at Loyalty in the Medieval World, a wonderful conference being organised by Hannah Boston and…