First year review of Celtic2Realms-medieval news blogspot
Niall C.E.J. O’Brien
On this day, one year ago, i.e. 7th
May 2013, I published the first article on my blog called Celtic2Realms-medievalnews. Blogspot.ie.
The article was called A life of Adam
Pode in fourteenth century Gloucester. The title was a bit of fun word
play. Adam as the first man in the Bible was an appropriate name for the first
article while Pode is near to IPad and modern technology with the internet and
blogging as part of that modern technology. The joy was that Adam Pode was a
real person who walked the earth 650 years ago. The article got 120 views on my
blog and 129 views on my independent.academia.edu page from where it was featured
on the medievalise.net website – a very nice result for a first article.
Writing medieval manuscripts so we could write medieval blogs
A long beginning
The idea of writing a blog was in
long gestation. I created the blog in November 2010 with the idea of posting
articles on medieval history using the record books I had to hand. But
distractions of the day job and problems with my computer meant that the blog
was left still-born for nearly three years. For much of 2012 and the early
months of 2013 I suffered some mental health problems and found it difficult to
write articles for journals of County and Local Historical Societies.
By starting to post articles on
medieval history concerning Ireland and Britain – the 2 realms of the
Celtic2Realms – on this blog, it would give me a vehicle to write articles that
may not be fully formed as a historical society journal would expect an article
to be on high standard. The blog would help me, therefore, to get out of the
rut of dong little or no writing of medieval history and hopefully over time
get back to publishing in historical journals and may be even publish a book or
two.
As the internet expects fresh
content on a constant basis it was my plan to write and post an article every
week. But of course plans are great for never actually succeeding in full
measure. Instead I managed to write 40 articles in 52 weeks which is not bad
and got an article published in a County Historical Society Journal in the same
past year.
Others on the internet have
written that a blog has a life-span of about three years and that many blogs
never get past the first three posts. Well – on this blog I did get past the
first three posts and made 43 posts in the first year. Not all 43 posts are
full articles on medieval history. One of the posts is an index of early articles
[http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/06/an-index-of-blogs-on-this-site-by-niall.html].This
post was made because the list of published articles on appears on screen for
the current month. You have to scroll down through the different months to find
earlier articles. In this review article all the blog posts are listed below
with a link to each article.
Two other posts - http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/08/knockanore-in-medieval-times-writing.html
and http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/10/editing-youghal-harbour-shipping-records.html
were written because I was well behind on publishing regular articles and just
wanted to tell my readers that they were not forgotten – that the three year
life-span of a blog had not reached http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/
just yet.
The statistics
In this first year of blogging http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/
has got 12 followers – 13 actually – but one of them is I – a good commander
has to lead by example and another 20 people on email notification. Ok – not a monster
meeting following compared to some blog sites but I value all my followers and
email recipients very much and am delighted with their companionship.
The articles are mostly promoted
via sharing on Facebook history sites. One could use such vehicles as twitter
but I have little grasp of how twitter works especially when the twitter
account I did set up a few years back keeps changing the password every time I tried
to enter it and so I just opened the window and left twitter to go free!
As said, in the first year I had
40 articles with 12,394 page-views (whatever they are supposed to be!). The
highest readership was for the article on the deaths of Professors James Lydon
and Mike Aston - http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/07/professors-james-f-lydon-and-mike-aston.html
- with 4,321 views. Sorry James but I think the name of Mike Aston is
generating the most Google hits for the article. The specific article on
Professor James Lydon generated 222 views.
The article with the lowest
readership views was on http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/01/feast-days-church-holidays-and-market.html
- with just 9 views. The problem with promoting material on Facebook is that
posts can quickly fall down the news wall and just get lost in the avalanche of
other posts.
Types of published articles
The big Google hits generated by
Mike Aston would encourage a writer to only write articles on popular people
and events so as to get the most internet hits. Yet my policy as a historian is
to as much as possible go off the wide roads of research and venture into the
places and people who history has forgotten. The harvest in any period of
history is vast and the labourers are often few, yet thankfully growing in
number – thus there is a whole world out there as the source for new articles
and books.
It is easy to write about the well-known
people and events of history and get loads of hits but popularity is not
everything. To write articles on people and places that have had few published articles
to date means a lot of long hours searching the original sources and trying to
understand what is the story with few markers to determine that story. That is one
of the reasons why I did not achieve the target of one article per week. Had I
written about popular people and events we could have done two articles a week –
on a good week!
Yet I enjoy wandering off on
roads less travelled by - meeting people and places that are as important to
our understanding of the past and to our understanding of our own time. The
articles I have written about used the books published by such organisations as
the Somerset Record Society, Wiltshire Record Society and the Irish Manuscripts
Commission – to name but a few – who work tirelessly to make available edited
versions of original documents so that people who live far from the main
archive libraries can take part as fully as possible it the joyful exploration
of history.
Over the coming year I hope to
write and post more articles on medieval history. I say thank you, to you the
reader, for coming this far along the road. I have enjoyed publishing the
articles listed below and have found the experience of writing and publishing
to be fulfilling. I look forward to your continued companionship on this time travel
through medieval history. Thank you very much.
Articles published
in the first year
7th May 2013
A life of Adam Pode in fourteenth century Gloucester = 120
views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/05/a-life-of-adam-pode-in-fourteenth.html
17th May 2013
Thomas le Reve, first bishop of the united diocese of
Lismore and Waterford = 130 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/05/thomas-le-reve-first-bishop-of-united.html
6th June 2013
Keynesham family of Gloucester in the early fourteenth
century = 42 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/06/keynsham-family-of-gloucester-in-early.html
19th June 2013
Index to published articles = 39 views
27th June 2013
Royal Constables of Cashel, Co. Tipperary = 181 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/06/royal-constables-of-cashel-castle-co.html
1st July 2013
Professors James F. Lydon and Mike Aston = 4,321 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/07/professors-james-f-lydon-and-mike-aston.html
2nd July 2013
Professor James F. Lydon, M.R.I.A., biography and
bibliography = 222 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/07/professor-james-f-lydon-mria-biography.html
16th July 2013
Morland vicarage and the lost book = 90 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/07/morland-vicarage-and-lost-book.html
19th July 2013
Medieval Record Sources in Printed Books and Articles = 183
views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/07/medieval-record-sources-in-printed.html
1st August 2013
Knockanore in medieval times = Writing about castles and
abbeys for the August Bank Holiday = 59 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/08/knockanore-in-medieval-times-writing.html
27th August 2013
Rincrew Religious House, Co. Waterford = 135 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/08/rincrew-religious-house-co-waterford.html
1st September 2013
Matthew the Archdeacon of Bath, 1333-1342 = 20 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/09/matthew-archdeacon-of-bath-1333-1342.html
10th September 2013
Edward Curtis, burgess of Wells in the fifteenth century =
28 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/09/edward-curtis-burgess-of-wells-in_10.html
15th September 2013
Knockanore in Cork or Waterford in Early Christian times =
74 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/09/knockanore-in-cork-or-waterford-in.html
23rd September 2013
Thomas Fitz Anthony: thirteenth century Irish administrator
= 126 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/09/thomas-fitz-anthony-thirteenth-century.html
30th September 2013
Molana Abbey in County Waterford, Ireland = 137 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/09/molana-abbey-in-county-waterford-ireland.html
8th October 2013
Editing Youghal Harbour shipping records = 27 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/10/editing-youghal-harbour-shipping-records.html
18th October 2013
Dovecotes in the Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous
Volume Eight = 141 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/10/dovecotes-in-calendar-of-inquisitions.html
31st October 2013
Nicholas Cusack, Bishop of Kildare 1279-1299 = 62 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/10/nicholas-cusack-bishop-of-kildare-1279.html
21st November 2013
In search of a woman in the time of King John and Henry III
= 65 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/11/in-search-of-woman-in-time-of-king-john.html
27th November 2013
Gloucestershire people hedging their bets in the political
instability of 1470 = 72 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/11/gloucestershire-people-hedging-their.html
30th November 2013
The building, fixtures and fittings of the medieval Irish
Exchequer = 54 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/11/the-building-fixtures-and-fittings-of_30.html
9th December 2013
Henry de Pont-Audemer: a royal official of King John and
Henry III = 42 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/12/henry-de-pont-audemer-royal-official-of.html
13th December 2013
Mocollop Castle, Co. Waterford: A history of a medieval
castle: Chapters one & two = 101 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/12/mocollop-castle-co-waterford-history-of.html
16th December 2013
Kildemock parish in medieval times and the jumping church =
71 views and 1 count
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/12/kildemock-parish-in-medieval-times-and.html
23rd December 2013
Mocollop Castle, Co. Waterford: A history of a medieval
castle: Chapters three & four = 82 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/12/mocollop-castle-co-waterford-history-of_23.html
27th December 2013
Mocollop Castle, Co. Waterford: A history of a medieval
castle: Chapters five & six = 117 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/12/mocollop-castle-co-waterford-history-of_27.html
30th December 2013
Mocollop Castle, Co. Waterford: A history of a medieval
castle: Chapters seven, eight & nine = 50 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/12/mocollop-castle-co-waterford-history-of_1552.html
9th January 2014
Dean John Bernard of Tamworth and the sale of the church
books = 24 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/01/dean-john-bernard-of-tamworth-and-sale.html
23rd January 2014
Irish Parliament of 1264: The first Irish parliament or just
another parliament = 65 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/01/irish-parliament-of-1264-first-irish.html
24th January 2014
Dovecots of Llanthony Priory in Ireland = 26 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/01/dovecots-of-llanthony-priory-in-ireland.html
31st January 2014
Feast days, church holidays and the market = 9 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/01/feast-days-church-holidays-and-market.html
3rd February 2014
Church activities and saving the harvest = 16 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/02/church-activities-and-saving-harvest.html
11th February 2014
Margaret de Cormeilles and a miscarriage of justice = 55
views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/02/margaret-de-cormeilles-and-miscarriage.html
12th February 2014
Geoffrey of Crowcombe: a witness to early thirteenth century
Ireland = 49 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/02/geoffrey-of-crowcombe-witness-to-early.html
16th February 2014
Okyle parish, church and people in County Waterford = 72
views and 2 comments
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/02/okyle-parish-church-and-people-in.html
2nd March 2014
Anchorites at churches and elsewhere = 61 views and 2
comments
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/03/anchorites-at-churches-and-elsewhere.html
21st March 2014
Huish manor in Wiltshire: from death to debt = 40 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/03/huish-manor-in-wiltshire-from-death-to.html
31st March 2014
Pedigree of John Goien in medieval Amesbury, Wiltshire = 28
views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/03/pedigree-of-john-goien-in-medieval.html
18th April 2014
Good Friday 1014: Brain Boru, Clontarf and the long shadow =
36 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/04/good-friday-1014-brian-boru-clontarf.html
20th April 2014
Dublin apprentices admitted to freedom 1468-1470 = 12 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/04/dublin-apprentices-admitted-to-freedom.html
26 April 2014
Mary Magdalene buildings and places in Ireland: first report
= 62 views
Article link = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/04/mary-magdalene-buildings-and-places-in.html
5th May 2014
Irish Parliament of 1269 = 13 views
=============================
End of post and looking forward to the next post
=============================
No comments:
Post a Comment