Christina Wade will be speaking at this year’s festival. She has a doctorate in history, and has been active as a beer blogger and podcaster for a long time. She’s also an author. Last year she published The Devil’s in the Draught Lines: 1000 Years of Women in Britain’s Beer History, and this year she came out with Filthy Queens: A History of Beer in Ireland.
The title of her talk is: Drinking with the Dead: Women, Ale, and Ritual in Viking-Age Ireland.
When the Viking invaders first set foot on Irish shores, they brought with them traditions, laws, and even myths surrounding drinking and making ale. In medieval Scandinavia women were integral not just to brewing this beverage, but also the rituals around it. From thirsty ghosts and cannibalism to burial rituals and grave goods, we explore the facts and fictions of the Norse in medieval Ireland.