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About Me

I graduated from University College Dublin, where I completed a Higher Diploma, a Masters Degree and was awarded a PhD in 2007. Before moving to New Zealand to take up the Eamon Cleary Chair of Irish Studies and co-direct the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Otago, I was Head of Department of History & Politics at Liverpool Hope University. I have held fellowships at the National Library of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Notre Dame, the School of Irish Studies at Concordia University, and the Moore Institute at the National University of Ireland Galway.

Funding from internationally bodies includes, the Department of Foreign Affairs Ireland, the Irish Research Council, the National Endowment of the Humanities USA, the Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College Hub and the Canadian Irish Studies Foundation.

My research area is modern Irish and British social history, especially gender and women’s history. I am a peer reviewer for UCD Press, Manchester University Press, Routledge and the journals Irish Historical Studies, History Research and Women’s History Review and an editorial board member of journals Breac: A Digital Journal of Irish Studies and Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Feminist Studies in Culture and Politics.

My publications appear in leading journals and I have authored and edited eleven books. Recent monographs include; Irish Women’s Speeches in two volumes published by University College Dublin Press (2021 & 2022) and The History of Marriage Equality in Ireland, was published by Manchester University Press in 2020.

A report authored by me and funded by the Irish Embassy in New Zealand, Mapping the Irish Community and People of Irish Heritage was published in December 2020.

Recent Publications

Monographs

• Irish Women’s Speeches volume two: A rich chorus of voices (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2022).
• Irish Women’s Speeches: Voices that rocked the system (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2021).
• The History of Marriage Equality in Ireland: a social revolution begins (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020 (Paperback, 2021).
• Eva Gore-Booth: An Image of Such Politics (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012).

Edited Collections

• Labour History in Irish History, editor with John Cunningham and Francis Devine (Dublin: Umiskin Press, 2023).
• Sexual Politics in Modern Ireland editor with Jennifer Redmond, Mary McAuliffe and Sandra McAvoy (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2015).
• Sapphists and Sexologists: Histories of Sexualities Volume II editor with Mary McAuliffe (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009).
• Tribades, Tommies and Transgressives: Histories of Sexualities Volume I editor with Mary McAuliffe (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008).

Edited Texts

• Eva Gore-Booth: collected poems, foreword by President Michael D. Higgins (Arlen House, 2018).
• The Political Writings of Eva Gore-Booth (Manchester University Press, 2015).
• Fiametta: a previously unpublished play by Eva Gore-Booth (Edwin Mellen Press, 2010).

Journal Articles

• ‘“A political nonentity with infants, criminals, and lunatics”: first wave feminism in Ireland 1872-1922,’ (2022) Gender and History: Ireland, 1852-1922: 234-47.
• ‘Essay in Review: A Capital in Conflict: Dublin City and the 1913 Lockout,’ (2013) Saothar: Journal of the Irish Labour History Society, Vol. 38: 131-4.
• ‘Challenging Presumptions of Heterosexuality: Eva Gore-Booth, a biographical case study,’ (2011) Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques, 37:2, Summer 2011: 58-71.
• ‘Tabloid Sensationalism or Revolutionary Feminism? The first-wave feminist movement in an Irish women’s periodical,’ (2010) Irish Communications Review, Vol. 12: 74-87.

Book Chapters

• ‘Gender and labour: “make men of you all,”’ in , John Cunningham, Francis Devine and Sonja Tiernan, Labour History in Irish History, (Dublin: Umiskin Press, 2023), 333-48.
• ‘Nan Joyce and traveller rights activism,’ in eds., John Cunningham, Francis Devine and Sonja Tiernan, Labour History in Irish History, (Dublin: Umiskin Press, 2023), 306-10.
• ‘Irish Christmas pie: “a dainty dish to set before a king?,”’ in ed Salvador Ryan, Christmas and the Irish: A Miscellany (Dublin: Wordwell Press, 2023), 166-69.
• ‘“Two girls in silk kimonos” Constance and Eva Gore-Booth: childhood and political development,’ in eds., Mary O’Dowd and Siobhán Fitzpatrick, Sisters: Nine Families of Sisters Who Made Their Mark on Irish Life (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2022), 125-46.
• ‘The (Out)Law of foreign adoption in Ireland: Jane Russell and her Irish baby,’ in ed., Salvador Ryan, Birth and the Irish: A Miscellany (Dublin: Wordwell Press, 2021), 281-84.
• ‘“The mouthpiece of the ordinary woman”; empowering women through The Irish Housewife magazine,’ in eds., Mark O’Brien and Felix Larkin, Periodicals & Journalism in Twentieth-Century Ireland 2: a variety of voices (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2021), 203-19.
• ‘“No Conscription Now! Or after the harvest”: Remembering Women and anti-conscription in Ireland and England,’ in ed., Oona Frawley, Women and the Decade of Commemorations (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2021), 107-23.
• ‘Sesame Street, Drag Queens and Religion: marriage for same-sex couples in Ireland,’ in ed., Salvador Ryan, Marriage and the Irish: A Miscellany (Dublin: Wordwell Press, 2019), 258-60.
• ‘“The Revolt of the daughters?” The Gore-Booth Sisters,’ in eds., Alan Hayes and Marie Meagher, A Century of Progress? Irish Women Reflect (Galway: Arlen House, 2016), 65-86.

Media Coverage

Experienced contributor to radio, documentaries, TV, newspapers and magazines. Recent example Marriage Equality and the Oireachtas, Oireachtas TV, 25 May 2025. https://vimeo.com/1086752725/dcdc4a7b47

Social Media

Bluesky

Country Focus

Ireland

Expertise by Geography

Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom

Expertise by Chronology

Modern, 20th century, 21st century

Expertise by Topic

Gender, Human Rights, Politics, Public History, Rebellion & Revolution, Sexuality, Women, World War I