Late Antique and Early Medieval Ireland and the Latin West

Though Ireland was never properly a part of the Roman Empire, it was a part of the Roman frontier. The extent of exchange and interaction with Britain and the Continent justifies our consideration of Ireland in the context of Late Antiquity as early as the third century CE. Elva Johnston has noted that the fifth century has served as ‘a chronological boundary’ and, as a result, ‘early Irish historical scholarship is greatly invested in analyzing conversion, Christianization and changing religious affiliations’, rarely treating the earlier period.¹ Johnston has challenged the tendency of Irish historians to view Ireland as isolated from