The Royal Irish Academy

In this month’s episode, host Rory Montgomery and Brendan O’Leary, Lauder Professor of Political Science, at the University of Pennsylvania, discuss Brendan’s latest book Making Sense of a United Ireland, Should it Happen, How Might it Happen? (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/448578/making-sense-of-a-united-ireland-by-oleary-brendan/9781844886050) published today. O’Leary makes sense of it all fro...

What happens when you merge two distinct legal, administrative and judicial systems with legacy concerns? The reunification of Germany is arguably the closest and most recent example of the systemic complexities faced should referenda on both sides of the Irish border allow for the processes of Irish unification to begin. In this ARINS podcast Tobias Lock and Aoife O’Donoghue discuss the lessons l...

In this month's episode of the ARINS podcast, Joanne McEvoy and Fidelma Ashe explore the ways in which including and encouraging popular engagement can not only enrich constitutional discussion but critically can shape constitutional change. You can read the article by Joanne McEvoy, Jennifer Todd and Dawn Walsh, as it appears in Irish Studies in International Affairs, at doi.org/10.1353/isia.2022...

In this month's episode, Katie Liston, Joseph Maguire and Bruce Kidd explore the role of sports in crafting identities and shaping politics on the island of Ireland. You can read Katie Liston and Joseph Maguire's paper, as it appears in Irish Studies in International Affairs, at doi.org/10.1353/isia.2022.0005. Bruce Kidd's response is available at doi.org/10.1353/isia.2022.0007. Katie Liston is Se...

Policing has been complicated and contentious on both sides of the island of Ireland. The prospect of a united Ireland raises profound and even jarring questions with regards to policing, questions which will require a depth of consideration, analysis and consultation if the issue is ever to be addressed effectively. In this episode, Vicky Conway and Roger Mac Ginty examine how policing in a unite...

The Good Friday Agreement and the Dayton Peace Agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina have often been compared as the two best-known and longest-lasting power-sharing or consociational agreements from the 1990s. The post-Brexit debate on possible referenda on a united Ireland has added a new dimension to this comparison. If referenda lead to the creation of a united Ireland, what does the experience...

Ireland's Ambassador to the United States, Daniel Mulhall, invites you to the American launch of 'Irish Lives in America' (Royal Irish Academy, 2021), a St Brigid’s Day celebration of the lives and achievements of Irish women who made America their home over the last 300 years. We'll meet characters such as Margaret Maher, one of the multitude of 'Bridgets' in America (a collective name given to I...

One of the many perspectives from which the pros and cons of a united Ireland can be weighed is that of human rights protection. In a united Ireland how differently, if at all, would the human rights of people living in Northern Ireland or in Ireland be protected? In this month's episode of the ARINS podcast, Brice Dickson and Rory Montgomery look at the implications for the protection of human ri...

Join us on Brigid's Day to commemorate the Women of 1922, in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs. From the handover of Dublin Castle, to the dawning of a new border across the island, to the fateful divisions of the civil war, a new book 'Ireland 1922' provides a snapshot of a year of turmoil, tragedy and, amidst it all, state-building as the Irish revolution drew to a close. Join F...

In this special episode of Shelfmarks for St Brigid’s Day, in association with the Department of Foreign Affairs, podcaster-in Residence Zoë Comyns explores the figure of Brigid. She imagines her origins in Irish folktale and story and delves into the Royal Irish Academy collection for traces of Brigid in the recordings of the Doegen archive. In 1926 the Irish government asked Dr Wilheim Doegen (D...

The Brexit referendum precipitated an era of tension and distrust between the British and Irish governments. In this month's episode of the ARINS podcast, Etain Tannam and Rory Montgomery reflect on the British-Irish Relationship and the Centrality of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. You can read Etain Tannam's paper, as it appears in Irish Studies in International Affairs, at https...

The sixth and final podcast in the series of the History of Emotions Podcasts 'From grief to wonder: Exploring emotions in Irish History' by Ciarán Wallace takes a surprisingly positive look at a cultural tragedy - the destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland at the outbreak of the Irish Civil War. Peering behind the cloud of smoke which billowed up on 30 June 1922, he describes the sens...

In this new series of four podcasts host Gill Plunkett explores the long view of climate change by interviewing the authors of 'Climate and Society in Ireland'. We talk about hunter gatherers, disease, poetry, weather events and consider our future vulnerabilities. In this final episode, Graeme Warren (UCD)reviews evidence for the potential impact of climate change on the earliest human settlement...

In this new series of four podcasts host Gill Plunkett explores the long view of climate change by interviewing the authors of 'Climate and Society in Ireland'. We talk about hunter gatherers, disease, poetry, weather events and consider our future vulnerabilities. In epidode 3, Bruce Campbell (QUB) and Francis Ludlow (TCD) consider the effects that climate had on the lives and livelihoods of ordi...

In this final episode of Shelfmarks, Zoë explores the life and work of chemist Richard Kirwan (President of the RIA 1790-1812). Richard Kirwan is often remembered for his peculiar habits but should be remembered as the first person to record accurate meteorological records taken in his garden in Dublin in the 1790/1800s. His study of the weather paved the way for more scientific studies of climate...

In this episode, Colin Harvey and Jennifer Kavanagh pick through the political uncertainties surrounding the anticipated referendums, north and south. How will the referendums work? How do we formulate the appropriate question to capture what the people should decide on? In episode 6 of the ARINS podcast, Colin Harvey and Jennifer Kavanagh discuss the intensifying conversation about constitutional...

In this new series of four podcasts host Gill Plunkett explores the long view of climate change by interviewing the authors of 'Climate and Society in Ireland'. We talk about hunter gatherers, disease, poetry, weather events and consider our future vulnerabilities. In episode 2, Lucy Collins explores the changing representation of weather in poetry written in Ireland between 1600 and 1820 and exam...

'Irish Lives in America', edited by Liz Evers and Niav Gallagher, documents fifty Irish people featured in the Dictionary of Irish Biography who made an indelible mark on American society, politics and culture. The book was launched by Neville Isdell on 24 November at 6.30 p.m. at EPIC the Irish Emigration Museum. The launch is followed by a panel discussion 'Irish Lives in America: underdogs or o...

In this new series of four podcasts host Gill Plunkett explores the long view of climate change by interviewing the authors of 'Climate and Society in Ireland'. We talk about hunter gatherers, disease, poetry, weather events and consider our future vulnerabilities. In episode 1, John Sweeney considers the challenging interaction between climate and society from the nineteenth century to the presen...

In episode 5 of Shelfmarks Zoë explores the myth of Cessair and Fintan mac Bochra from the Leabhar Gabhála (The Book of Invasions / The Book of the Taking of Ireland). In the myth Cessair is the grand-daughter of Noah and daughter of Bith. Bith is refused passage on The Ark and so Cessair builds three ships to seek out a new land. Each ship is crewed by fifty women. During the seven year journey t...

Host Gill Plunkett introduces a new series of four podcasts exploring the long view of climate change by interviewing the authors of 'Climate and Society in Ireland', a collection of essays commissioned by the Royal Irish Academy. 'Climate and Society in Ireland' provides a multi-period, interdisciplinary perspective on one of the most important challenges currently facing humanity. Combining synt...

This week on Shelfmarks imaginary islands, real books and Manchán Magan on the magical in betweenness of Irish. The Royal Irish Academy holds the most important collection of Irish language manuscripts in the country and more specifically it holds medical manuscripts - 6000 thousand pages across 30 different textbooks. One of these medical books is called the Book of O’Lees or Book of Hybrasil. Th...

In this episode, Gladys Ganiel and Philip McDonagh discuss church leaders' contributions to public debates about a post-Brexit island. You can read Gladys Ganiel's paper, as it appears in Irish Studies in International Affairs, at https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3318/isia.2021.32b.47 Philip McDonagh's response can be found at https://doi.org/10.3318/isia.2021.32b.52 Gladys Ganiel is reader in the...

In this bonus episode of Shelfmarks, guest writer Conor W. O'Brien reads a short piece on the wolf in Ireland. Shelfmarks is a podcast by the Royal Irish Academy podcaster-in-residence Zoë Comyns. Every other week Zoë will sift through the Academy collection for Shelfmarks (biographies, manuscripts, books and reference from the collection) and invite a guest writer to discuss their own relationshi...

This week on Shelfmarks Zoë Comyns tries to get a sense of the immense work done by Robert Lloyd Praeger. From his early days in Co. Down, tramping through the Mourne Mountains to the thousands of miles he walked across Ireland studying botanics, to his contribution to 800 publications and his 24 books RL Praeger is probably considered Ireland’s most influential naturalist. Zoë’s guest this week o...