Cattle Lords & Clansmen

The Social Structure of Early Ireland

Nerys T. Patterson

Winner of the 1992 American Conference for Irish Studies Prize for a Distinguished First Book

In Cattle Lords and Clansmen Nerys Patterson provides an analysis of the social structure of medieval Ireland, focusing on the pre-Norman period. By combining difficult, often fragmentary primary sources with sociological and anthropological methods, Patterson produces a unique approach to the study of early Ireland - one that challenges previous scholarship.

The second edition includes a chapter on seasonal rhythm, material derived from Patterson's post-1991 publications, and an updated bibliography.

"This book taps into the rich but tantalizingly obscure body of Old and Middle Irish law which dates from the seventh and eighth centuries... Nerys Patterson uses the six volumes of early Irish law to reconstruct the complex hierarchical and familial relationships, which constituted secular Irish society in the centruries before and sometime after the Viking arrived in Ireland. Patterson's sociological approach is a significant addition to our understanding of early historic Irish Celtic society."
- History Ireland

"This books ought to send a new generation of archaeologists into the countryside of the Emerald Isle. A few more studies of this caliber will set a very different scenario for Celtic studies in the 21ste century."
- Antiquity

Nerys Patterson (1943-2007) was a Visiting Scholar at University College of North Wales, Bangor.