Ciaran O'Neill

On Sun 8 March BBC Radio 4 will broadcast The Alpenpost: A Girl's Guide to Fighting Hitler and Stalin - a documentary based on my research!

It traces how I uncovered the lost archive of an anti-Nazi resistance organiser in a wind-rattled villa on the Galician coast.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Dublin City Phia l tk F DCPL 700008 a alla roweressness in eston Ireland Life in a Palliative State The Green and the Gray COMMUNILIES UF VIULENCE The history of Union Ireland is typically told through its best-known historical events and leaders-from the 1798 Rising, the Great Famine, and the Irish Revolution, to Parnell and De Valera-and as moments of sectarian division and high parliamentary politics. Instead, Ciaran O'Neill here makes the case for a broader, more inclusive, and decentred approach that emphasizes transnational phenomena, a settler-colonial diaspora, and minority groups on the island. Through the lenses of power and 'powerlessness", he demonstrates that the received historiographical wisdoms suffer from several misconceptions: on the one hand they misconstrue the nature of power and the powerful, perpetuating historical myths about the 'ungovernability of Ireland. After securing the Union, the British state proceeded to govern Ireland with less and less certainty of ever persuading its citizens of its legitimacy. Despite all reforms and investment, there was a widespread sense that Ireland would never recover and be a willing partner in the Union. On the other hand they take at face value the nature of the so-called powerless, ignoring the myriad ways in which marginalized and diasporic groups negotiated and asserted their agency during the Union period, influencing and transforming the powerful centre in the process. The result is an untraditional and thought-provoking reappraisal of Union Ireland that raises important questions about colonialism and resistance-what it means to govern and be governed, and the long-lasting legacies of the spaces in between. PRESS Jacket image: Kathy Tynan,

Power and Powerlessness in Union Ireland: Life in a Palliative State.
By @ciaranon.bsky.social #glykoreads

Hand holding a hardcover book with a black and white illustration and the text “Performing Modernity: Culture and Experiment in the Irish Free State” by Elaine Sisson.

This was on the cataloging shelf this morning, and the amount of whoops and cheers I’ve let out just reading the introduction and skimming chapters! A really important book for Irish visual and material culture, and much needed in the broader Irish Studies field 📚

Dr Robin Usher, RJ Hunter Digital Fellow at QUB, explaining how 17th century life stories can be traced through the 'People of the Ulster Plantation' database.

Prof Mary O'Dowd (RIA/QUB) chairs a panel with Dr William Roulston (UHF), Prof Tom O'Connor (Maynooth) and Dr Robin Usher (QUB) at the 'Plantation of Ulster' conference.

Great conference on The Ulster Plantation today at PRONI, showcasing the relaunched 'People of the Ulster Plantation' online database, produced through a research collaboration of @ria.ie, @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social and @maynoothuniversity.ie. Access is via ulster-settlers.maynoothuniversity.ie

A huge thank you to Jay Roszman (UCC), who delivered the keynote at this year's #Comhfhios, titled "The Problem of Meaning: 'Outrages' & Violence in Pre-Famine Ireland"

An amazing lecture to end a captivating day of research on violence and its legacies in Ireland!

@jayroszman.bsky.social @ucc.ie

Very pleased to share details of a new permanent academic job opportunity in Creative & Cultural Industries at University College Dublin. We are seeking candidates with a PhD whose work engages with the commercial creative industries. Deadline: 6 March 2026 universityvacancies.com/university-c....

Brewing Power: Food and Drink in Sixteenth-Century Dublin Castle is delighted to present a six-part public lecture series exploring how food and drink shaped everyday life, social relationships and authority in sixteenth-century Ireland.

For any of you interested in early modern beer, Dublin Castle, or just history and food in general, this series of talks and tastings I have helped put together might be of interest 🍻🧐
#History #Heritage #Food #Beer #SpeirGorm
www.eventbrite.com/cc/brewing-p...

A book cover, showing the title 'Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation' by Tom Hulme. It is lavender coloured with yellow text, and shows two men sat on a bench, c. 1935.

*drum roll*

Here is the cover for my book, which will be published by @cornellupress.bsky.social on 15 April 2026!

I thought it would be nice to share a bit of info on who these men were and how their lives and interests inspired the design...

An O’Connellite Empire? Irish Nationalism, British Imperial Trouble, and the Limits of Anti-Imperialism in the Age of Reform* Abstract. This article explores the way Irish nationalists in the 1830s and 1840s understood and condemned British imperial policy in times of trouble, whi

New article! Jay Roszman @jayroszman.bsky.social on 'An O’Connellite Empire? Irish Nationalism, British Imperial Trouble, and the Limits of Anti-Imperialism in the Age of Reform'

academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

It also looks pleasingly like an enormous, terrified, face. Or does to me at least

Photo of the facade of Castle Daly in Galway, in ruins.

Castle Daly in Galway, one of the properties we discuss, is one of the more spectacular ruins in Ireland connected to slavery. But there are plenty more.

You can hear Finola O’Kane trying to figure out how Daly spent all his money in at Galway on his return, and hear me chatting with Paula Lahiff and Mia Liddy in Paula’s lovely Lough Gill home. Historical research is often like this. Collaborative, discovery-led, surprisingly communal and accidental.

It was wonderful to work on this project with Chris Nikkel and RTE Doc on One, whose work I’ve admired for years. @tlrhub.bsky.social @rtedoconone.bsky.social @historytcd.bsky.social

Jamaica Daly An Irish family learns about their ancestor's past as a slave-owner.

This documentary was so much fun to make. It’s compiled from audio we gathered across a couple of years and follows two amazing women - Meg and Dympna - all the way to Jamaica, in search of Meg’s ancestor: an Irish Catholic enslaver and coffee planter, Peter Daly

www.rte.ie/radio/docono...

Excited to share details of my first monograph, Revolutionary Connections, coming out Open Access with OUP this year! It explores diverse forms of international engagement in revolutionary Russia and Ireland, including responses to Ireland in Russian-language texts. global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Amazon, aristocrat or democrat? Women and Irish politics in the age of revolution

We are delighted that Catriona Kennedy will give the @ssnci.bsky.social annual lecture on 'Women & Irish politics in the age of revolution'!! It will be held @nlireland.bsky.social on 22 January. For more see
www.nli.ie/exhibitions-...

#OpenAccess highlight: 'Britishness, Irishness, and class: Catholic identities in Anglo-Australia 1880-1916', by Scott Denis McCarthy is available through the following link:

@universitypress.cambridge.org

To learn more about the 2k Irish settlers from Ballyhoura, Cork, and the land they settled in Nogojiwanong-Peterborough, see nineships1825.com/about/

The Lyric Feature Chris Nikkel follows the story of a forgotten Irish migration to Canada through folk music passed down orally, and a special bicentennial commemoration.

👏 Chris Nikkel. This RTE doc centres on stunning 1950s recordings of folk songs by Irish settlers in Ontario, dating back to 1825. The material really brings out the complexity of settler commemoration, first nation displacement, and the stories we tell ourselves. www.rte.ie/radio/lyricf...

Myths, History Wars, and Indigenous-Settler Relations in Canada and Other Settler States Cambridge Core - Global History - Myths, History Wars, and Indigenous-Settler Relations in Canada and Other Settler States

Congratulations to David MacDonald on his new title in the @universitypress.cambridge.org Elements in Historical Theory and Practice series "Myths, History Wars, and Indigenous-Settler Reconciliation in Canada and Other Settler States doi.org/10.1017/9781.... Downloads free till 31 December.

Prison reform from below: London, c.1780–1830* Abstract. This article explores the history of the English prison reform movement from ‘below’ – that is, from the perspective of prison inmates. By highli

A nice surprise this morning: my article on prison reform from below is out!

I believe it’s open access but let me know if you can’t get a copy and would like one.

academic.oup.com/histres/adva...

Call for Papers

(De)colonial Solidarities: Whiteness, Colonialism, and the Politics of Allyship

27-28 August 2026

University of Turku, Finland

Deadline: 15 February 2026

Thanks to Alice Baroni for sharing!

Absolutely delighted to see that my article on Catholic chapels in Ireland from the 1790s to the 1820s is now available in Architectural History, the journal of the SAHGB - a real career dream come true to have an article in this journal, I must say! #skystorians www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

YouTube video by QUB Irish Studies Irish Studies Seminar: Patrick Walsh

If you missed Patrick Walsh's talk yesterday on 'A colonial sinew of power? Rethinking the 18th-century Irish state', a recording is available at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=haJr...

Irish Romanticism Cambridge Core - English Literature 1700-1830 - Irish Romanticism

'the heart is sick with hoping and hoping before books reach Ireland' Maria Edgeworth in 1816

Publication day for @universitypress.cambridge.org Irish Romanticism was yesterday but no sign of any books in Cork yet!

www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...

Book cover of Irish Writers and the New Yorker in the Mid-20th Century

My little book will be available for pre-order in January 2026. Please consider ordering a copy for your library. I'll be eternally grateful if you would like to review the book. Happy reading! 😊 www.routledge.com/Irish-Writer...

We are delighted to announce that we'll be hosting the SSNCI conference in Maynooth next June. Call for papers attached. Please spread far and wide!

New article! Joe Curran on '(Re-)Making the ‘Stateless Capital’: Edinburgh and Dublin in European Context, c.1820–1850'

academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

Launch Details - The Commercial Lives of Irish Women, 1850-1922 Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street Thursday, 4th December | 7pm

Do go along to the launch of Antonia Hart's new monograph, The Commercial Lives of Irish Women, 1850-1922 (LUP). It is a brilliant piece of work, beautifully written, and well worth reading.

Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street
Thursday, 4th December | 7pm

Required reading of the most welcome sort in IHS this morning.

'It is in the space between our divining and conjuring that the argument lies, the debate happens, history is written and the story gets its endless quality.'

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...