Dr Ciaran O'Neill

Ussher Associate Professor in Nineteenth-Century History.

Research Interests

My work mostly clusters in the long nineteenth century and spans fairly diverse themes. I am interested in the social and cultural history of Ireland and empire, the history of education and elites, colonial legacies, modern literature, and public history. I am Principal Investigator of Seeing Ireland: Art, Culture, and Power in Paris 1922, funded by the Commemorations Unit at DTAGSM, and of RISING, a Creative Ireland Climate Action collaboration between Unit 18 at Trinity, Brokentalkers, Dublin Theatre Festival, and Algorithm. I co-direct the Trinity’s Colonial Legacies project with my colleague, Dr Patrick Walsh. Recent and forthcoming work appears in Gender & History, Journal of Victorian Culture, Journal of British Studies, and Radical History Review. I have held visiting fellowships in the University of São Paulo, Boston College, University of Notre Dame, and in SMU Halifax, Nova Scotia. Since 2020 I have served as Deputy Director of Trinity Long Room Hub.

Publications

Some of these publications are available to download at https://tcd.academia.edu/ciaranoneill

Books (4)

2024. Power and Powerlessness in Union Ireland: Life in a Palliative State (Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2024)
2023. (ed.) w/ Finola O’Kane Crimmins, Ireland, Slavery and the Caribbean; Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Studies in Imperialism (Manchester: Manchester University Press, hbk 2023, pbk 2024)
2014. Catholics of Consequence: Transnational Education, Social Mobility and the Irish Catholic Elite, 1850-1900 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, hbk 2014, pbk 2016).
- Winner of the James S. Donnelly Sr. Prize for History and the Social Sciences (2015)
- Special Commendation: NUI Publication Prize in Irish History (2015).
2013. (ed.) Irish Elites in the Nineteenth Century (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2013).

Special Issue Journals (2)

2016. (ed.) w/ Enda Delaney, ‘Beyond the Nation: Transnational Ireland’, Éire-Ireland, 51/1&2, 280pp
2015. (ed.) w/ Bruce Bradley and Daire Keogh, ‘The Jesuits in Ireland’, Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, 103/412, 601pp.

Journal Articles (12)

2024 w/ S. Karly Kehoe, ‘“A colony to themselves:” Scottish Highland Settler Colonialism in British North America, 1770-1804.,’ Journal of British Studies, (First view, 2024)
2022 ‘‘‘Harvard Scientist seeks Typical Irishman’: Measuring the Irish Race 1888-1936,’ Radical History Review, 143 (May, 2022).
2022 w/ S. Karly Kehoe, ‘A Catholic Atlantic?,’ Journal of Victorian Culture (submitted)
2020 w/ Juliana Adelman, ‘Love, Consent, and the Sexual Script of a Victorian Affair in Dublin, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 29/3, 388-417.
2019. ‘’The Cage of my Moment’ A Conversation with Emma Donoghue about History and Fiction,’ Journal of Historical Fictions 2:2. [Open Access]
2019. ‘The Jesuits and the Irish Catholic Elite’, Espacio, Tiempo y Educacion, 6/2, 99-120. [Open Access]
2018. w/ Mary Hatfield, ‘Education and Empowerment: Cosmopolitan education and Irish women in the early nineteenth century, Gender & History, 30/1, 93-109.
2017. w/ Thomas Cauvin, ‘Negotiating public history in the Republic of Ireland: collaborative, applied and usable practices for the profession’, Historical Research. doi:10.1111/1468-2281.12192
2017. w/ Maeve Casserly, ‘Public History, Invisibility, and Women in the Republic of Ireland,’ The Public Historian, 39/2, 10-30. [Open Access]
2016. w/ Mo Moulton, Michael De Nie, Enda Delaney, ‘Roundtable Discussion: Teaching Transnational History’, Eire-Ireland, 51/1&2, 266-76.
2016. w/ Enda Delaney, ‘Beyond the Nation’, Eire-Ireland, 51/1&2, 7-14.
2009. ‘The Irish schoolboy novel’, Eire-Ireland, 44/1-2, 147-68

Book Chapters (13)

2024. ‘The Literary Americanisation of Ireland 1841-1925’, in Fionnuala Walsh, (ed) America in Ireland: Culture and Society 1841-1925 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 120-143.
2023. ‘In Search of Excess: Lambert Blair and his appetites,’ in Ciaran O’Neill and Finola O’Kane (eds), Ireland, Slavery and the Caribbean: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Studies in Imperialism, (Manchester: Manchester University Press)
2020. ‘How Should Historians Approach Elites?,’ in Francois Denord, Mikael Palme, Bertrand Réau (eds) Researching Elites and Power (Springer) 159-168. [Open Access]
2019. w/ Petter Sandgren (1), ‘Elites and Education’, in Tanya FitzGerald (ed), The International Handbook of Historical Studies in Education (Springer) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0942-6_39-1
2018. ‘Bourgeois Ireland, or, on the benefits of keeping one’s hands clean’, in James Kelly (ed), The Cambridge History of Ireland, 3 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
2017. ‘Literacy and Education’, in Eugenio F. Biagini and Mary E. Daly (eds), The Cambridge Social History of Modern Ireland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,). pp 244-60.
2017. ‘Education, cosmopolitan cultural capital, and European elites in the nineteenth century’ in Susan Hegarty and James Kelly (eds), Schools and Schooling, 1650-2000: new perspectives on the history of education(Dublin: Four Courts Press), pp 93-109.
2016. w/ Mai Yatani, ‘Ambition, Women, and the City: Irish women novelists 1890-1910’, in Anna Pilz and Whitney Standlee (eds), Irish Women's Writing 1878-1922: Advancing the Cause of Liberty (Manchester: Manchester University Press), pp 100-20.
2014. ‘The Irish schoolboy novel’, in Maria Luddy and James M. Smyth (eds),Children, childhood, and Irish society: 1500 to the present (Dublin: Four Courts Press), pp. 183-197. [reprint]
2013. ‘Introduction’, in Ciaran O’Neill (ed.) Irish Elites in the Nineteenth Century (Dublin: Four Courts Press), pp 17-30.
2013. ‘Power, wealth and Catholic identity in Ireland, 1850-1900’, in O. Rafferty (ed.), Irish Catholic Identities (Manchester: Manchester University Press).
2012. ‘Education, imperial careers, and the Irish Catholic elite in the nineteenth century’, in D.J. Dickson, J. Pyz and C Shepard (eds), Irish Classrooms and British Empire: Imperial contexts for the origins of modern education (Dublin: Four Courts), pp. 98-110.
2010. ‘Pearse, Parnell & the priests: history and politics in the Irish schoolboy novel’, in Katerina Jencova et al (eds.), The Politics of Irish Writing (Prague: Charles University Centre for Irish Studies), pp. 69-77.

Pamphlets and Art Catalogue Essays (6)

2022. The Public History of Slavery in Dublin (Dublin: Dublin City Library and Archive) [Open Access]
2022. ‘The Irish Artist in the World: Culture, Markets, and Modernity’, in Who Do We Say We Are? Irish Art 1922 | 2022 (South Bend: Snite Museum of Modern Art)
2021. ‘Dublin’s Lost Wetlands and the Technosphere,’ Systems (Dublin: Science Gallery).
2021. ‘Not So Innocent’, Dublin Review of Books, Jan 2020. [Open Access]
2016. Exhibition Catalogue Essay, in Mick O’Dea, The Foggy Dew (Dublin: Royal Hibernian Academy)
2015. ‘Programme Note’, Famished Castle, a Rough Magic Theatre production, 6-23 May.

Working Papers (3)

2023. w/ Mobeen Hussain and Patrick Walsh, Working Paper on TCD and Slavery. March 2022 (v.2)
2023. w/ Mobeen Hussain and Patrick Walsh, Working Paper on George Berkeley’s Legacies at TCD. March 2023 (v.2)
2022. w/ Mobeen Hussain and Patrick Walsh, Working Paper on Human Remains from Inishbofin held in the Haddon-Dixon collection at TCD. March 2022 (v.2)

Teaching

I teach freshman modules on Irish, British, and imperial social and cultural history. At Sophister level I teach a specialist year-long module on Ireland, Modernity, and Empire and another on History and Fiction. I founded and for many years directed the M.Phil in Public History and Cultural Heritage along with Dr Georgina Laragy. In 2015 I won the Provost’s Teaching Award at Trinity College Dublin.

PhD Supervision

I have the privilege of supervising, or co-supervising the following graduate students at present:

Conor Dodd, ‘Glasnevin Cemetery – Revolution and Commemoration’ (estimated completion 2025) sole supervisor
Cydney Thompson, ‘Adapting the Museum to the Digital Age,’ (estimated completion 2025), co-supervising with Dr Jennifer Edmond
Holly Ritchie, ‘Saviours and Slavers: the Irish in the Catholic Atlantic 1763-1860,’ (estimated completion 2025), co-supervising with Prof Karly Kehoe, SMU Halifax.
Oliver Brennan, ‘William Patrick Ryan (1867-1942): A life,’ (estimated completion 2026), sole supervisor.

PhD Graduates (8) & Former Postdoctoral Mentees (3)

Dr Clare Morrison, ‘Identity and Irishmen in the Chinese Customs Service’ (2024) co-supervised with Dr Isabella Jackson.
Dr Shelby Zimmerman, ‘The Medicalisation of Death in Dublin City Workhouses, 1872-1920’ (completed 2024) co-supervised with Dr Georgina Laragy.
Dr Mobeen Hussain, Trinity Colonial Legacies Project Postdoctoral Fellow, 2021-2023.
Dr Joseph Curran, ‘An Urban History of Dublin Castle 1801-1880, (IRC Postdoctoral Fellow 2021-2023)
Dr Sarah Hunter, Health of a nation - the physical and societal impact of Irish medical missionaries working in Bengal, 1885-1935 (Graduated 2016) co-supervised with Prof David Dickson
Dr Mai Yatani, Women's Reading Habits in fin de siècle Ireland (graduated 2017) co-supervised with Prof David Dickson
Dr Mary Hatfield, Growing up in Ireland: constructions of gender and childhood in nineteenth-century Ireland (graduated 2018) co-supervised with Prof David Dickson
Dr Jerome Devitt,, Defending Ireland from the Irish - The British and Irish Executive's reaction to Fenianism 1863-69 (graduated 2018) co-supervised with Prof David Dickson
Dr Aidan Beatty, Property: Race, Gender and the History of a Transnational Idea (GOI Postdoctoral Fellow 2016-18) sole mentor.
Dr Antonia Hart, Irish Women in Business in the nineteenth century (completed 2021) co-supervised with Dr Richard McMahon (MIC)
Dr Catherine Healy, A Cultural History of the Irish Domestic Servant in Britain and the US, c. 1870-1945 (graduated 2022) sole supervisor