Paton, Anne Elizabeth (2015) An examination of the evidence for the existence of leprosy and Hansen’s disease in medieval Ireland. PhD thesis. https://theses.gla.ac.uk/6427/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] AN EXAMINATION OF THE EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF LEPROSY AND HANSEN’S DISEASE IN MEDIEVAL IRELAND ANNE ELIZABETH PATON M.A. (Hons.), M.Sc. Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Ph.D. School of Humanities College of Arts University of Glasgow August 2014 Abstract Much concerning the disease termed leprosy is accepted as received knowledge, without thought to time and place, but there were many differences in how leprosy sufferers were treated across regions and eras, and so diversity should be regarded as normal. This thesis will examine what was meant by the term leprosy during primarily the medieval period between the sixth and fifteenth centuries in Ireland in order to see if this equates with the disease called Hansen’s Disease in the twenty-first century. The focus will fall around the twelfth century, but as the majority of the extant documentary evidence is mainly from the early modern period, this will, out of necessity, also be discussed. There has been much written on what exactly leprosy was in the past and this thesis will not attempt to answer that question directly, instead its aim will be to contextualise the situation in medieval Ireland by examining the presence of leprosy in comparative terms in the Middle Ages. Leprosy in medieval Ireland is a much neglected area of research due to the perception that there is a lack of evidence. Although extant documentary sources may be less than elsewhere in medieval Europe, this thesis will show that there are plenty of other forms of proof available. Ciara Crawford’s unpublished thesis of 2010, which examined general illness, including leprosy in the Irish annals, is the only other research undertaken this millennium regarding leprosy in medieval Ireland, as all of the other limited research in connection with this subject was undertaken during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This thesis employs all forms of extant evidence including, annals, documentary, hagiography, archaeology, paleopathology and place-names and using this multi-disciplinary approach provides confirmation of the presence of the disease, which was then termed leprosy, in medieval Ireland. This approach resulted in multiple methodological and terminology issues and this thesis will also attempt to address these in order to understand the extent and nature of leprosy in Ireland and its prevalence throughout the period under scrutiny. Employment of this multi-disciplinary approach has resulted in a surprising amount of Irish evidence concerning leprosy being gathered together for the first time. This approach enabled an image to emerge of how leprosy and its sufferers were treated and together with elsewhere, Ireland shows diverse outcomes. It must be taken into consideration however that the extant evidence is inconsistent and some geographical areas and time periods are better represented than others, resulting in an incomplete and uneven portrayal. 2 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 4 Author’s Declaration 5 Abbreviations 6 General Introduction 7-29 Chapter One – What is Leprosy? 30-60 Chapter Two – Terms associated with Leprosy in Medieval Ireland 61-107 Chapter Three – Physical Evidence for Leprosy and HD in Medieval 108-126 Ireland Chapter Four – An Examination of the Documentary and Place-name 127-199 Evidence connected to Leper-hospitals in Medieval Ireland Chapter Five – An Examination of Clam and Lobur in Irish 200-255 Hagiography General Conclusion 256-262 Bibliography 263-284 3 Acknowledgements Firstly I would like to extend my thanks to my supervisor Professor Thomas Clancy who has supported me throughout this time despite everything that fate has thrown at us. Without Professor Clancy this thesis would never have commenced and would certainly never have been finished and would have been very much inferior without his guidance and knowledge. I would also like to thank Dr Bronagh Ni Chonaill and Gilbert Márkus for their help, especially as Gilbert was co-opted late in the day and showed great patience when assisting with translations. I would also like to thank all staff and fellow postgraduate students of the Celtic and Gaelic department who have supported and sustained me along the way, especially Dr Geraldine Parsons for her enthusiasm and Dr Peter McNiven for allowing access to his article prior to publication. I would also like to thank the post-graduate support group of friends in University Gardens. Special thanks go to Dr Elín Eyjólfsdóttir, who has helped and supported from afar and provided technical assistance. My especial thanks are extended to Dr Catriona Gray who has encouraged and cajoled me to the finishing line and without whom this thesis would not have been completed. Lastly I would like to thank my family who have always supported and helped me live my dream and never complained when there was no food on the table or clean clothes! My especial thanks go to my long-suffering and beloved husband George who now knows far more about medieval leprosy than he ever wanted to and has been forced to share his home with ‘virtual’ lepers for the last four years. I also dedicate this thesis to my sister Valerie Morgan and my mother Phyllis Parkinson, both of whom died before it was completed and who made me promise I would finish it and I devote it to their memories. 4 Author’s Declaration This thesis is my own composition and is based on my own research. It was not undertaken in collaboration with any other student or researcher. It has not been, and will not be, presented for any other degree, at any other institution. All errors are of course my own. 5 Abbreviations AC Annals of Clonmacnoise AI Annals of Inisfallen AR Annals of Roscrea AT Annals of Tigernach AU Annals of Ulster BCG Bacillus Calmette-Guérin CI Chronicle of Ireland CS Chronicon Scotorum CT Annals of Connacht DIL Dictionary of the Irish Language DNA Deoxyribonucleic Acid FM Annals of the Four Masters HD Hansen’s Disease LC Annals of Loch Cé LL Lepromatous Leprosy MDT Multiple Drug Therapy ML Mycobacteria leprae OED Oxford English Dictionary TT Tuberculoid Leprosy VC Vita Columba WHO The World Health Organisation 6 1.1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION This general introduction sets out the intended purposes and methodologies of this thesis, beginning with Luke Demaitre’s observation that, an idea of the challenges presented by the identity of the disease, the intensity of the responses, and the far-reaching practical implications of seemingly abstract concepts.1 Demaitre’s viewpoint is just as relevant to Ireland as elsewhere and it is useful when studying historical leprosy to bear this statement in mind. My interest in Irish leprosy began when reading Cath Almaine as an undergraduate and although it is normally other aspects of this tale which intrigues people, for me, it was the appearance of a ‘leper’ who although portrayed as living alone, is shown as an object of ridicule, but not as someone to be feared. This was in contrast to what I knew about medieval ‘lepers’ at the time and when deciding on a thesis topic it seemed an interesting subject to pursue and from this grew a fascination and also a frustration with how ‘lepers’ are viewed generally as it consists of many myths and inaccuracies. Much concerning leprosy is accepted as conventional knowledge, without any consideration to the time and place, but there was in fact much diversity in how leprosy sufferers were treated and considered across different regions and eras and the aim of this thesis is to examine the evidence for leprosy in Medieval Ireland in this regard. Will the evidence show that Irish ‘lepers’ were treated the same way throughout the country or not and whether it changed over time, as is the case with other places which have undergone study? There has been very little research concerning leprosy in Medieval Ireland, mainly due to a perception of a lack of documentary evidence, the cause for which will be discussed in Chapter Four. This relative lack of detailed textual sources has resulted in a multi-faceted and inter-disciplinary approach having to be undertaken in order to try and answer the main focus of this thesis with regard to the evidence for leprosy in Medieval Ireland and if it follows a similar pattern to elsewhere. In order to undertake this it was a necessity to examine a diverse variety of sources, including the Irish annals, archaeology, paleopathology, place-names, sculpture, folk lore and hagiography, together with analysis of the extant documentary evidence. None of the extant documents were written by an Irish ‘leper’ and so, as in common with elsewhere, there is no first-hand 1 Luke Demaitre, Leprosy in Premodern Medicine, (Baltimore, 2007), 105. 7 account of their own experiences. There are however early modern documents which contain the names of inhabitants of the Waterford Leper-hospital; named ‘lepers’ are a rare occurrence in any country and this will be discussed in Chapter Four.