The publication of the long awaited fourth and fifth volumes of the Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing would seem to mark the moment when female voices are accepted and celebrated in 'mainstream' history and literature. Women and their traditions are given space and expert elucidation in a period that ranges from the early Middle Ages to the present; hidden Irelands, linguistic, cultural, and sexual are revealed; voices compete and converse in a variety of traditions. These volumes are an invention and discovery of a host of Irelands. The task of reviewing these two volumes is formidable because the required expertise goes well beyond the competence of any single individual. Fortunately, my task is more modest. As a historian of early medieval Ireland, I propose to examine those contributions that impinge on my own field. My focus will be on the first part of Volume IV, "Medieval to Modern, 600-1900' (pp. 1-457), especially on the sections dealing with early medieval Ireland. These contributions, and some relevant texts elsewhere, make up a relatively small proportion of the two volumes. Taken as a unit, however, they are the largest modern collection of early medieval texts in translation relating to Irish women. (2) As such they are important: they present a substantial body of material together and in accessible format for the first time. This early medieval anthology can be considered in its own right, but it does interact with the wider Field Day project and I will make observations on this interaction. I will also examine the material's significance for what might broadly be described as the study of women in Ireland, their history and their writings.
