Thomas Finan, Ph.D.
My main focus of research is the history and archaeology of later medieval Ireland, particularly the history of the borderlands region of the Shannon River in Roscommon in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Since 2002 I have been director of the Kilteasheen Archaeological Project, one of the largest ongoing archaeological surveys and excavations in Ireland. Kilteasheen is a high status Gaelic ecclesiastical enclosure that includes a cemetery, thirteenth century hall house, and an elaborate medieval field system. I also conduct research a number of other fields, including the historical theology of the later medieval Gaelic church, thirteenth century bardic poetry, the history of the O Conor and Mac Dermot families of Roscommon, and landscape history of north Roscommon.