DIET AND FOOD(including analysis of fecal fill of cesspits) suggests
that the townspeople would have been self-sufficient
in some ways, raising pigs and goats and growing their
own vegetables within their own properties. The sur-
rounding rural landscape would have been the main
source of cattle meat and dairy products, wheat and
barley, as well as various gathered fruits, hazelnuts, ber-
ries (e.g., sloes, rowan berries, bilberries), and mosses.
Marine mollusc shells such as periwinkles and mussels
indicate the consumption of foods gathered from the
foreshore. According to Geraghty, faunal analyses sug-
gest that cattle found in the town were all steers; no
calves were present, suggesting that herds were being
specifically driven into the town for slaughtering for
beef (Geraghty 1996, 67). Some imported foods
included plums, walnuts, and of course, wine. Despite
this, there is some skeletal evidence for seasonal short-
ages of food and malnutrition, while it is likely that the
proximity of wells to cesspits led to stomach ailments
and intestinal parasites (Geraghty 1996, 68).
Gaelic Irish and Anglo-Norman Diet
and Food Traditions
By the later Middle Ages, it is possible that there were
regional and cultural variations in diet and food con-
sumption. Oats, dairy produce, salted meats, and ani-
mal fats may have been primarily consumed by the
Gaelic Irish, while the diet of people in the Anglo-
Norman towns and neighboring regions may have been
dominated by wheat, meats, fish (particularly salted
and smoked herring), and fowl. However, in reality
there may have been a more complex ethnic and cul-
tural blending of dietary traditions, with spices, wines,
and rich foods being consumed by social elites, while
most people ate dairy produce and cereals. Meat con-
sumption appears to have been dominated by cattle,
and animals were slaughtered at a mature age when
their hides and horns could also be used. On the other
hand, sheep, pigs, and goats were also highly impor-
tant. In archaeological excavations in Hiberno-Norse
and later medieval Waterford, massive amounts of
sheep bones were uncovered (McCormick 1997). The
Anglo-Norman manorial economy also led to the intro-
duction of rabbits into Ireland, and these were probably
kept in warrens, while doves were kept in dovecots for
an extra delicacy on the table. Fish and shellfish were
also consumed. Medieval fishweirs found on Strang-
ford Lough and on the Shannon estuary indicate the
catching of salmon, eels, and trout (among other fish)
in the twelfth and thirteenth century A.D. (O’Sullivan
2001; McErlean and O’Sullivan 2002).
In the Anglo-Norman manorial economy, tillage and
arable crops were a significant aspect of the agricultural
organization of the landscape. Cereal crops were
threshed, dried in kilns, and brought to water mills for
grinding. Processed grain was used for preparation of
bread, stews, and pottages, as well as for making alcohol.
Ale, rich in calories and vitamins, was brewed profes-
sionally and in the home, and was consumed (apparently
in large quantities) in both aristocratic and peasant
households (O’Keeffe 2000, 68). However, there were
also periods of hunger and famine, particularly in the early
fourteenth century, when bad weather and warfare com-
bined to wreak havoc on the Irish population.
In the sixteenth century, cattle continued to be of
major social and economic importance to Gaelic Irish,
particularly in the north and west where a mobile cattle-
herding system emerged, well-suited to a time of political
instability and warfare. Dairy products such as milk,
butter, cheeses, whey, and curds dominated diets. Oats
were also of some importance, being used for por-
ridges and for making dry oaten cakes. Cattle were
occasionally bled for food, the blood being mixed with
butter and meal to make puddings.
AIDANO’SULLIVANReferences and Further Reading
Geraghty, S. “Viking Dublin: Botanical Evidence from Fisham-
ble Street.” National Museum of Ireland Medieval Dublin
Excavations, 1962–81, Ser. C, vol. 2. Dublin: Royal Irish
Academy, 1996.
Kelly, F. Early Irish Farming.Dublin: Dublin Institute for
Advanced Studies, 1997.
Lucas, A. T. “Irish Food Before the Potato.” Gwerin3 (1960):
1–36.
McCormick, F. “Stockrearing in Early Christian Ireland.”
Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, The Queen’s University of Bel-
fast, 1987.
McCormick, F. “The Animal Bones.” In Late Viking Age and
Medieval Waterford: Excavations 1986–1992, edited by
M.F.Hurley and O. M. B. Scully, 819–852. Waterford:
Waterford Corporation, 1997.
McCormick, F. “The Distribution of Meat in a Hierarchical
Society: The Irish Evidence.” In Consuming Passions and
Patterns of Consumption, edited by P. Miracle and N.Miller,
25–32. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological
Research, 2002.
McErlean, T., and A. O’Sullivan. “Foreshore Tidal Fishtraps.” In
Strangford Lough: An Archaeological Survey of Its Maritime
Cultural Landscape, edited by T. McErlean, R. McConkey,
and W. Forsythe, 144–180. Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2002.
Simms, K. “Guesting and Feasting in Gaelic Ireland.” Journal
of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland108 (1978):
67–100.
O’Neill, T. Merchants andMariners in Medieval Ireland. Black-
rock, Co. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1987.
Ó Corráin, D. Ireland Before the Normans.Dublin: Gill and
McMillan, 1972.
O’Keeffe, T. Medieval Ireland: An archaeology.Stroud: Tem-
pus, 2000.
O’Sullivan, A. For agers, Farmers and Fishers in a Coastal
Landscape: An Intertidal Archaeological Survey of the
Shannon Estuary. Dublin: Discovery Programme Mono-
graphs 4, Royal Irish Academy, 2001.