Dr Pamela O'Neill
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Dr Pamela O'Neill

BA (Macquarie), JD (UTS), MA, MJur, PhD (Sydney)
Sir Warwick Fairfax Lecturer in Celtic Studies
Discipline of English and Writing
Dr Pamela O'Neill

Dr Pamela O’Neill is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and was awarded the honour Tus Enorys Ewn by the Celtic Council of Australia. Pamela is series editor of the Sydney Series in Celtic Studies, co-editor of the Australian Celtic Journal, president of the Celtic Council of Australia, vice-president of the Aisling Society of Sydney, the Irish National Association, and the Cornish Association of NSW and public officer of the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society. She was founder, president and journal editor of the Australian Early Medieval Association, which has made her an honorary life member.

She has published widely on early medieval Scottish and Irish ecclesiastical and legal history, landscape and material culture, and reflections of those themes in Australian history. Her teaching is primarily in medieval and modern Celtic languages, and this has led to a research interest in the history and teaching of Celtic languages, particularly in Australia.

  • Early Irish law
  • Landscape archaeology, place-names and material culture of early medieval Scotland and Ireland
  • Legal history
  • Celtic language teaching methods
  • Scottish, Irish and Cornish culture in Australia

Teaching

Supervision
I welcome approaches from potential postgraduate students in any area of Celtic history, archaeology, art history, literature or language.

  • preparing an edition and translation of Críth Gablach (early Irish status text) with commentary, emphasizing the relationship between the text and its material culture context.
  • historic use of the Scottish Gaelic language in the Pacific region, with northern New South Wales as a case study
  • methodologies for teaching Celtic languages
Project titleResearch student
A single Tree is not called a ForestArwen SMITH
Puncturing the Myths: The History and Historiography of Insular Tattooing from Antiquity to the Early Medieval PeriodErica STEINER

Selected publications

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Publications

Books

  • O'Neill, P. (2005). 'A pillar curiously engraven; with some inscription upon it': What is the Ruthwell Cross?. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Edited Books

  • Ahlqvist, A., O'Neill, P. (2018). Fir Fesso: A festschrift for Neil McLeod. Sydney: The Celtic Studies Foundation, University of Sydney.
  • Ahlqvist, A., O'Neill, P. (2017). Germano-Celtica: A Festschrift for Brian Taylor. Sydney: The Celtic Studies Foundation, University of Sydney.
  • Ahlqvist, A., O'Neill, P. (2013). Celts and their Cultures at Home and Abroad: A Festschrift for Malcolm Broun. Sydney, Australia: The Celtic Studies Foundation, University of Sydney.

Book Chapters

  • O'Neill, P. (2023). Cladh a' Bhile, Ellary, and its maritime context (forthcoming). In Thomas Owen Clancy (Eds.), Onomastications: a Festschrift for Simon Taylor. Glasgow: University of Glasgow.
  • O'Neill, P. (2017). A Possible Early Medieval Route across Scotland. In Anders Ahlqvist, Pamela ONeill (Eds.), Germano-Celtica: A Festschrift for Brian Taylor, (pp. 211-225). Sydney: The Celtic Studies Foundation, University of Sydney.
  • Ahlqvist, A., O'Neill, P. (2017). Preface. In Anders Ahlqvist, Pamela ONeill (Eds.), Germano-Celtica: A Festschrift for Brian Taylor, (pp. ix-xi). Sydney: The Celtic Studies Foundation, University of Sydney.

Journals

  • O'Neill, P. (2022). MacKinnons in New South Wales, 1882–1902. West Highland Notes and Queries, 5(6), 30-30.
  • O'Neill, P. (2017). Old Irish 'muirchrech' 'sea-boundary'. Eriu: journal devoted to Irish philology and literature, 67, 1-9. [More Information]
  • O'Neill, P. (2017). Review of Matthieu Boyd, Ollam: Studies in Gaelic and Related Traditions in Honor of Tomas O Cathasaigh. Australian Celtic Journal, 14, 74-76.

Edited Journals

  • Ahlqvist, A., McLeod, N., O'Neill, P. (2017). Australian Celtic Journal 14. Australian Celtic Journal, 14. [More Information]

Conferences

  • O'Neill, P. (2011). Unraveling Time in Early Irish Law. The Seventh Australian Conference of Celtic Studies, Sydney, Australia: The Celtic Studies Foundation, University of Sydney.

2023

  • O'Neill, P. (2023). Cladh a' Bhile, Ellary, and its maritime context (forthcoming). In Thomas Owen Clancy (Eds.), Onomastications: a Festschrift for Simon Taylor. Glasgow: University of Glasgow.

2022

  • O'Neill, P. (2022). MacKinnons in New South Wales, 1882–1902. West Highland Notes and Queries, 5(6), 30-30.

2018

  • Ahlqvist, A., O'Neill, P. (2018). Fir Fesso: A festschrift for Neil McLeod. Sydney: The Celtic Studies Foundation, University of Sydney.

2017

  • O'Neill, P. (2017). A Possible Early Medieval Route across Scotland. In Anders Ahlqvist, Pamela ONeill (Eds.), Germano-Celtica: A Festschrift for Brian Taylor, (pp. 211-225). Sydney: The Celtic Studies Foundation, University of Sydney.
  • Ahlqvist, A., McLeod, N., O'Neill, P. (2017). Australian Celtic Journal 14. Australian Celtic Journal, 14. [More Information]
  • Ahlqvist, A., O'Neill, P. (2017). Germano-Celtica: A Festschrift for Brian Taylor. Sydney: The Celtic Studies Foundation, University of Sydney.

2013

  • Ahlqvist, A., O'Neill, P. (2013). Celts and their Cultures at Home and Abroad: A Festschrift for Malcolm Broun. Sydney, Australia: The Celtic Studies Foundation, University of Sydney.
  • O'Neill, P. (2013). Control of the Means of Production in Early Irish Law. Studia Celtica Fennica, 10, 81-89.
  • O'Neill, P. (2013). Material Culture and Social Development in Early Irish Law Texts. In Anders Ahlqvist and Pamela ONeill (Eds.), Medieval Irish Law: Text and Context, (pp. 143-159). Sydney: The Celtic Studies Foundation, University of Sydney.

2011

  • Ahlqvist, A., O'Neill, P. (2011). Language and Power in the Celtic World: Papers from the Seventh Australian Conference of Celtic Studies, University of Sydney, September 2010. Sydney: The Celtic Studies Foundation, University of Sydney.
  • O'Neill, P. (2011). Unraveling Time in Early Irish Law. The Seventh Australian Conference of Celtic Studies, Sydney, Australia: The Celtic Studies Foundation, University of Sydney.
  • O'Neill, P. (2011). Unravelling time in early Irish law. In Anders Ahlqvist and Pamela O'Neill (Eds.), Language and Power in the Celtic World: Papers from the Seventh Australian Conference of Celtic Studies, University of Sydney, September 2010, (pp. 323-350). Sydney: The Celtic Studies Foundation, University of Sydney.

2010

  • O'Neill, P. (2010). Peregrinatio: Punishment and Exile in the Early Gaelic church. Australian Celtic Journal, 9(2010), 29-41.

2008

  • O'Neill, P. (2008). St Vigeans No 1 and No 1a: a reconsideration. Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 4, 159-173.
  • O'Neill, P. (2008). When onomastics met archaeology: a tale of two Hinbas. Scottish Historical Review, 87(1), 26-41. [More Information]

2007

  • O'Neill, P. (2007). A Sense of Place: Monastic Scenes in Irish-Australian Funerary Monuments. In Laurence M. Geary and Andrew J. NcCarthy (Eds.), Ireland, Australia and New Zealand: history, politics and culture, (pp. 119-134). Dublin: Irish Academic Press. [More Information]
  • O'Neill, P. (2007). Six degrees of whiteness: Finbarr, Finnian, Finnian, Ninian, Candida Casa and Hwiterne. Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 3, 259-267. [More Information]

2005

  • O'Neill, P. (2005). 'A pillar curiously engraven; with some inscription upon it': What is the Ruthwell Cross?. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Selected Grants

2012

  • Medieval Irish law texts: scholarly, legal and social development, Ahlqvist A, McLeod N, Stifter D, O'Neill P, Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Projects (DP)

In the media