From its origins as a monastical settlement and later as a Viking kingdom, to its identity as an English colonial capital, medieval Dublin passed through many incarnations. It has been, alternately, a pirates' lair at the center of a brutal slave trade, an emergent town ransacked periodically by its Irish neighbors, a rapidly expanding municipality headed by a mayor, and the principal focus of loyalty to the crown in a beleaguered Pale. The history of medieval Dublin is extraordinarily rich and complex. This book - now available in paperback after many years out of print - is intended both as a tribute to some of Ireland's most distinguished medieval scholars and as a further contribution by The Friends of Medieval Dublin to their declared policy of diffusing knowledge of the history of this remarkable city. The editor of Medieval Dublin - Dr. Howard Clarke - is widely recognized as Ireland's foremost scholar in the field.