Assoc ProfessorRoy Flechner

I am university lecturer in early medieval history. I came to academe almost by accident: I took a career break from journalism to do a Masters at Oxford, but an unexpected graduate scholarship allowed me to complete a doctorate at Oxford's Faculty of History. Before arriving in Dublin I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Lincoln College Oxford, a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College Cambridge, and an Affiliated Lecturer at the History Faculty in Cambridge.

PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS

1. Flechner, R. (2019): Saint Patrick Retold: The Legend and History of Ireland’s Patron Saint (Princeton: Princeton University Press)

2. Flechner, R. (2019): The Hibernensis: Volume 1. A Study and Edition. Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Canon Law 17a (Washington, D.C.: CUA Press) 640pp.

3. Flechner, R. (2019): The Hibernensis: Volume 2. Translation, Commentary, and Indexes. Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Canon Law 17b (Washington, D.C.: CUA Press) 550pp.

4. Flechner, R. (2021): Making Laws for a Christian Society: the Hibernensis and the Beginnings of Church Law in Ireland and Britain. Studies in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland (New York: Routledge)

EDITED VOLUMES

5. Edwards, N., M. Ní Mhaonaigh, and R. Flechner, eds. (2017): Transforming Landscapes of Belief in the Early Medieval Insular World and Beyond. Converting the Isles II (Turnhout: Brepols)

6. Flechner R., and M. Ní Mhaonaigh, eds. (2016): The Introduction of Christianity into the Early Medieval Insular World. Converting the Isles I (Turnhout: Brepols)

7 . Flechner, R., and S. Meeder., eds. (2016): The Irish in Early Medieval Europe: Identity, Culture and Religion (London: Bloomsbury)

JOURNAL AND SERIES EDITING 

8. Early Medieval Europe: Co-ordinating Editor (with Francesca Tinti) 2019–2023

9. Studies in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland: Series Editor (with Joanna Story) 2013–Present

ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS

10. Flechner, R. (2026): 'Insular origins', in Rob Meens and Elaine Pereira Farrell, eds., Penitential Books from the Middle Ages. Reading Medieval Sources (Leiden: Brill) [Forthcoming]

11. Flechner, R. (2026): 'From Bible to law in the early Middle Ages. Adaptations of the Old Testament in the Collectio Hibernensis and King Alfred's Law-Book', The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 77: 479–502

12. Doherty, Hugh, and Roy Flechner (2025): 'Richard Sharpe (1954–2020)', The English Historical Review 140: 846–62

13. Flechner, R. (2025): 'Bible, exegesis and the interpretation of law in the Collectio Hibernensis', in Gerda Heydemann and Rosamond McKitterick, eds., The Politics of Interpretation: The Bible and the Formation of Legal Authority in the Early Middle Ages. Quellen und Forschungen zum Recht im Mittelalter (Ostfildern), 59–79

14. Flechner, R. (2025): 'Moral restraints on wealth accumulation on papal estates in the long sixth century: revisiting Pope Gregory's policies on alienating and ceding church property', Early Medieval Europe 33: 50–70

^{This is the first article to emerge from the Papal Patrimonies project, funded by Enterprise Ireland.}

15. Flechner, R., and J. Fontaine (2021): 'The admission of former slaves into churches and monasteries: reaching behind the sources', Early Medieval Europe 29: 586–611

16. Flechner, R. (2020): 'The Chronicle of Pseudo-Origen: simulating a world chronicle in seventh-century Ireland', Peritia 31: 89–106

17. Flechner, R. (2020): 'How far is global?', Medieval Worlds 12: 255–266

18. Flechner, R. (2020): 'Divination and lot-casting in early medieval canonical collections', in Klaus Herbers and Hans-Christian Lehner, eds., Mittelalterliche Rechtstexte und mantische Praktiken (Cologne), 55–64

19. Flechner, R. (2019): 'Canonical collections', in P. Reynolds, ed., Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 182–197

20. Flechner, R. (2017): 'Identifying monks in early medieval Britain and Ireland: a reflection on legal and economic aspects', in Atti delle Settimane di studio CISAM 64: 805–844 

21. Edwards, N., M. Ní Mhaonaigh, and R. Flechner (2017): 'Converting the Isles: reflections and reconsiderations', in N. Edwards, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, and R. Flechner, eds., Transforming Landscapes of Belief in the Early Medieval Insular World and Beyond. Converting the Isles II (Turnhout: Brepols), 489–511

22. Flechner, R. (2017): 'Investigating peasant conversion in Ireland and Anglo-Saxon England', in N. Edwards, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, and R. Flechner, eds., Transforming Landscapes of Belief in the Early Medieval Insular World and Beyond. Converting the Isles II (Turnhout: Brepols), 427–454

23. Flechner, R. and M. Ní Mhaonaigh (2016): 'Introduction', in R. Flechner and M. Ní Mhaonaigh, eds., The Introduction of Christianity into the Early Medieval Insular World. Converting the Isles I (Turnhout: Brepols), 1–12 

24. Flechner, R. (2016): 'Conversion: reflections on the state of the art', in R. Flechner and M. Ní Mhaonaigh, eds., The Introduction of Christianity into the Early Medieval Insular World. Converting the Isles I (Turnhout: Brepols), 41–60 

25. Davies, W. and R. Flechner (2016): 'Conversion to Christianity and economic change: consequence or coincidence?', in R. Flechner and M. Ní Mhaonaigh, eds., The Introduction of Christianity into the Early Medieval Insular World. Converting the Isles I (Turnhout: Breopols), 377–398

26. Flechner, R. (2016): 'Introduction', in R. Flechner and S. Meeder, eds., The Irish in Early Medieval Europe: Identity, Culture and Religion (Basingstoke, New York: Palgrave Macmillan), 1–18 

27. Flechner, R. and S. Meeder (2016): 'Controversies and ethnic tensions', in R. Flechner and S. Meeder, eds., The Irish in Early Medieval Europe: Identity, Culture and Religion (Basingstoke, New York: Palgrave Macmillan), 195–213 

28. Flechner, R. (2017): 'Conclusion', in R. Flechner and S. Meeder, eds., The Irish in Early Medieval Europe: Identity, Culture and Religion (Basingstoke, New York: Palgrave Macmillan), 231–241

29. Flechner, R. (2016) 'Normative texts as sources for conversion to Christianity in Europe', in Y. Fox and Y. Yisraeli, eds., Contesting Inter-Religious Conversion in the Medieval World (London: Routledge), 77–95

30. Flechner, R. (2015): 'Pope Gregory and the British: mission as a canonical problem', in H. Bouget and M. Coumert, eds., Histoires des Bretagnes 5. En marge (Brest: Université de Bretagne occidentale), 47–65

31. Flechner, R. (2013): 'The Chronicle of Ireland: then and now', Early Medieval Europe 21: 422–454 [Awarded the Michael Adams/ASIMS Prize] 

32. Flechner, R. (2012): 'The problem of originality in early medieval canon law', Viator 43: 29–47 

33. Flechner, R. (2012) 'St Boniface as historian: a Continental perspective on the development of the early Anglo-Saxon church', Anglo-Saxon England 41: 41–62

34. Flechner, R. (2011): 'Patrick's reasons for settling in Ireland', Historia: Journal of the Historical Society 26: 5–20

35. Flechner, R. (2011): 'Patrick's reasons for leaving Britain', in F. Edmonds and P. Russell, eds., Tome: Studies in Medieval History and Law in Honour of Thomas Charles-Edwards (Woodbridge: Boydell), 125–134 

36. Flechner, R. (2009): 'An Insular tradition of ecclesiastical law: fifth to eighth century', in J. Graham-Campbell and M. Ryan, eds., Anglo-Saxon/Irish Relations before the Vikings. Proceedings of the British Academy 157 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 23–46

37. Flechner, R. (2008): 'Aspects of the Breton transmission of the Hibernensis', Pecia 12: 27–44 

38. Flechner, R. (2008): '''Libelli et commentarii aliorum'': the Hibernensis and the Breton bishops', in K. Ritari and A. Bergholm, eds., Approaches to Religion and Mythology in Celtic Studies (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholar), 100–119

39. Flechner, R. (2005): 'Dagán, Columbanus, and the Gregorian mission', Peritia 19: 65–90 [Awarded the John Rhŷs Prize]

40. Flechner, R. (2004): 'Paschasius Radbertus and Bodleian Library, MS. Hatton 42', Bodleian Library Record 18: 411–421

41. Flechner, R. (2003): 'The making of the Canons of Theodore', Peritia 17–18: 121–143

BOOK REVIEWS

42. Flechner, R. (2025): Review of Erik Hermans, A Companion to the Global Middle Ages (Amsterdam, 2020) for Early Medieval Europe 34: 297–299

43. Flechner, R. (2023): Review of Elizabeth O'Brien, Mapping Death: Burial in Late Iron Age and Early Medieval Ireland (Dublin, 2021) for Early Medieval Europe 31: 525–528

44. Flechner, R. (2022): Review of Nathan Elawa, Understanding Religious Change in Africa and Europe: Crossing Latitudes (Cham, 2020) for Early Medieval Europe 30: 467–469

45. Flechner, R. (2020): Review of Donnchadh Ó Corráin, Clavis Litterarum Hibernensium, 3 vols. (Turnhout. 2017) for Early Medieval Europe 28.3: 498–500

46. Flechner, R. (2019): Review of Bruce Frier, et al., The Codex of Justinian: A New Annotated Translation, with Parallel Latin and Greek Text, 3 Vols (Cambridge, 2016) for Early Medieval Europe 27.2: 305–307

47. Flechner, R. (2017): Review of Rob Meens, Penance in Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 2014) for The Medieval Journal 6.2: 144–147

48. Flechner, R. (2014): Review of Thomas O Loughlin, Gildas and the Scriptures (Turnhout, 2012) for The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 65: 884–885

49. Flechner, R. (2012): Review of Malcolm Lambert, Christians and Pagans. The Conversion of Britain from Alban to Bede (New Haven, 2010) for The English Historical Review 127: 401–403

50. Flechner, R. (2012): Review of Richard Hoggett, The Archaeology of the East Anglian Conversion (Woodbridge, 2010) for The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 63: 365–366 

51. Flechner, R. (2010): Review of Karen George, Gildas's De excidio Britonum and the early British Church (Woodbridge, 2009) for The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 109: 523–525

52. Flechner, R. (2008): Review of Thomas O Loughlin, Adomnán and the Holy Places (London, 2007) for The Irish Theological Quarterly 73: 403–406

53. Flechner, R. (2005): Review of P. Ní Chatháin and M. Richter, eds., Ireland and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: Text and Transmission (Dublin, 2002) for Éigse 35: 169–172