These essays, the proceedings of the fourth public symposium held by the Friends of Medieval Dublin in 2002, range from Eileen Reilly's account of what insect remains can tell us about life in and around the houses of Viking Dublin, to Lynda Conlon's study of the legal rights and economic power of women in Anglo-Norman Dublin, to Danielle O'Donovan's revelation that parts of the medieval archbishop's palace stand encased within the core of what is now Kevin Street Garda Station.