News
Irish Economic and Social History Society (ESHSI) 52nd Annual Conference, DCU, December 2025
On 5 December, Dr Anna Devlin presented a research paper on ‘Economic planning in the early years of the Irish Free State: constraints, possibilities and impact’ at the Irish Economic and Social History Society conference.
Society for the History of War Conference 2025: Cultures of War and Violence
Bundeswehr Centre of Military History and Social Sciences & University of Potsdam, 27-28 November 2025.
The Witnessing War, Making Peace team presented at the SHoW conference in Potsdam in November 2025. The panel was titled ‘War, Violence, and the Everyday in Inter-War Ireland’. The panel was chaired by Dr Anna Devlin, with papers by Dr Susan Byrne, Professor Anne Dolan and Gregory Walls.
Book Review
The ‘Witnessing War, Making Peace’ project was mentioned by Taoiseach Micheál Martin, in a review of David McCullagh’s new book on the Anglo Irish Treaty ‘From Crown to Harp’, The Irish Times 30 October 2025: Micheál Martin on David McCullagh’s new book: An excellent read exploring ultimate fate of Anglo-Irish Treaty.
35th Conference of Irish Historians
Maynooth University, September 2025
On 12 and 13 September, Dr Susan Byrne and Gregory Walls presented research papers at the Conference of Irish Historians on the theme of ‘Outer Lives, Inner Realities’, organised by the Irish Committee for Historical Sciences and Maynooth University.
DIASPORA Project – History of Marginalisation Workshop, MOLI, May 2025
Dr Susan Byrne presented a paper entitled ‘The Ordinary Female Prisoner in the Irish Free State (1922-37)’ at the UCD DIASPORA project’s History of Marginalisation in Ireland workshop held at the Museum of Literature Ireland (MOLI).
Navigating War and Violence Conference, DCU, April 2025
In April 2025, we attended the ‘Navigating War and Violence in twentieth-century Ireland’ conference organised by DCU postgraduate students and the DCU School of History and Geography. Each member of the Witnessing War team was invited to speak at the conference.
Project-investigator Professor Anne Dolan delivered the keynote address entitled Histories ‘in the midst of Blood’.
Research Fellow Dr Susan Byrne’s paper explored Living through turbulent times: one woman’s experience of war and revolution in Ireland.
PhD candidate Gregory Walls’ paper considered Crime and Violence in post-independence Ireland.
School Workshop, Harold’s Cross ETSS, 2025
On 20 March 2025 we hosted a research workshop with very enthusiastic 5th Year history students and their teacher Caoimhe Naughton from Harold’s Cross Educate Together Secondary School.
The students discussed ideas for their Leaving Cert history projects, covering an amazing range of topics, and analysed different types of historical sources. They sent us this lovely card to say thank you!
HEX Conference 2025, Tampere, Finland
Project Research Fellow Dr Susan Byrne presented at the HEX Conference in Tampere University on a panel which explored gender, sexuality and inter-subjectivity in modern Irish history on 12 March 2025.
IHSA 76th Annual Conference, UCC
On 1 March 2025 our PhD student Gregory Walls presented on aspects of his research at the 76th annual IHSA conference in UCC.
Project Workshop, Trinity College Dublin
The team hosted a research workshop with Postdoctoral and Postgraduate researchers from the Department of History, Trinity College Dublin in January 2025.
Dublin Festival of History, September 2024
Witnessing War Making Peace project investigator Professor Anne Dolan presented an overview of the project as part of the Dublin Festival of History in September 2024.
Funded by Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland under grant number IRCLA/2023/1707.
Hosted by the Department of History, Trinity College Dublin.
WITNESSING WAR, MAKING PEACE 