Kenneth Nicholls

For the U.S. Army officer, see Kenneth Nichols.

Kenneth W. Nicholls (1934 – 25 May 2025) was an Irish academic and historian, notable for his work on the late medieval and early modern period. He was the subject of a festschrift in 2014.

Work

Nicholls worked at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies for a period during the 1960s. He was a member of staff of the history department in University College Cork until his retirement in 2004.^[1] He came to national and international prominence as the author of Gaelic and Gaelicised Ireland in the Middle Ages, first published in 1972, and reprinted in 2003.^[2] He was particularly regarded among his peers for his deep knowledge of late medieval and early modern historical sources in the Irish, Latin, French and English languages.^[3]

Nicholls' areas of professional interests included:^[4]

• Late medieval and early modern Ireland, including topics such as genealogy, population studies, place-names, marriage, law, institutions
• Scottish history, particularly legal and institutional
• extinction of animals within historical times
• agrarian history

Death

Nicholls died at Bantry General Hospital on 25 May 2025, at the age of 90.^[5][6]

Recognition

His work was honoured in the festschrift Regions and rulers in Ireland, 1100-1650: essays for Kenneth Nicholls (David Edwards, editor; Dublin, 2004), which is a collection of essays by several of the leading Irish historians of today.

Select bibliography

Articles

• Tuath Bailenangeadh (Twoghballyneges etc.) in "Dinnseanchas", 2/3, 1967, p. 89.
• Tobar Finnmhuighe - Slan Padraig, Dinnseanchas, 2/4, 1967, p. 97-98.
• Some placenames from The Red Book of the Earls of Kildare, Dinnseanchas, 3/2, (1968), p. 25-37.
• The descendants of Oliver FitzGerald of Belagh, in The Irish Genealogist, 4/1 (1968), p. 2-9.
• The Lisgoole agreement of 1580, in Clougher Record 7/1 (1969), p. 27-33.
• Some documents on Irish law and custom in the sixteenth century, in Analaecta Hibernica, #26, (1970), pp. 27–33.
• The Kavanaghs, 1400-1700 (I), in The Irish Genealogist, 5/4, (Nov 1977), pp. 435–47.
• The Kavanaghs, 1400-1700 (II), in The Irish Genealogist, 5/5, (Nov 1978), pp. 573–80.
• The Kavanaghs, 1400-1700 (III), in The Irish Genealogist, 5/6, (Nov 1979), pp. 730–334.
• The Kavanaghs, 1400-1700 (VI), in The Irish Genealogist, 6/2, (Nov 1981), pp. 189–203.
• Kinelmeaky and the Munster Plantation, in O'Mahony Journal, 10 (1980), p. 10-14.
• Notes on the genealogy of Clann Eoin Mhoir, in West Highland Notes and Queries, 1991, p. 11-24.
• Richard Tyrell, Soldier Extraordinary, in The Battle of Kinsale, ed. Hiram Morgan, pp. 160–78, Dublin, 2004.

Books

• Gaelic and Gaelicised Ireland in the Middle Ages, Gill History of Ireland 4, Dublin, 1972; revised and reprinted by Lilliput Press, Dublin, 2003.^[2]
• The O'Doyne (Ó Duinn) Manuscript, Irish Historical Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 1985.

External links

• Dialogue of Silvynne and Peregrynne, Hiram Morgan, Kenneth Nicholls (eds), Corpus of Electronic Texts.
• Kenneth Nicholls, Retired Staff, UCC