The following collection of essays is offered to Thomas Charles-Edwards on the occasion of his retirement from the Jesus Chair of Celtic in the University of Oxford. Thomas has occupied this position from 1997 until 2011 and before that he was a Fellow and Tutor in History at Corpus Christi College. He has always imparted his knowledge generously, devoting much time to teaching undergraduates and supervising graduate students. Some of the contributors to this volume were supervised by Thomas; others benefited in other ways from his wisdom when they were students; and the work of all, as colleagues in the field, has been shaped by his work. Thomas's research is held in high esteem in the world of Celtic scholarship, and he is renowned for the extraordinary range of his interests and publications. No single volume could reflect the full range of his contribution (strikingly borne out in the difficulty of tracking down all his publications to date, listed in Maredudd ap Huw's contribution), and so it was decided to focus on the areas of Celtic history and law. But even within that it is notable that all the essays here can find a starting point within Thomas's own body of work.

The first half of the volume contains essays which consider historical aspects of Britain and Ireland and often also reflect his interest in archaeology and epigraphy: Sue Youngs discusses some of the Christian symbols found on hanging-bowls from post-Roman Britain; Clare Stancliffe considers aspects of Columbanus's monasticism; Catherine Swift examines the role of priests in early medieval Ireland.