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Department of History

Dr. Bríd McGrath

Adjunct assistant professor and lecturer in palaeography

My primary research interests are early 17th. Century Irish parliaments and towns. My research career started with biographical studies of M.P.s in the 1613-5, 1634-5 and 1640-1 Irish parliaments but I have developed my interests to work on administrative history, specifically electoral practice and parliamentary procedure and taxation. I am currently writing a monograph on the operations of the Irish House of Commons, 1613-1648.

I am interested in Irish towns 1603-1649 and have edited the Clonmel corporation records; my edition of the Coleraine corporation records is to be published shortly. I am developing my interests in Irish towns into the Cromwelliam period. My research focuses on all aspects of towns, including social and economic networks, town structures, social structure, taxation and civic dress.

I have been awarded research fellowships in Archbishop Marsh’s Library, the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, Dr. Edward Worth Library, Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Huntington Library and the Harry Ransom Center for the Humanities to pursue my research.

Select Publications
Books

  • The Letter Book of George Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare (edited with Aidan Clarke). Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2013. ISBN 978 1 90686502803
  • The Minute Book of the Corporation of Clonmel, 1608-1649. (edited), Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2006. ISBN 1874280533. xiv, 383 pp.
  • Irish Dictionary of National Biography, (Cambridge University Press, multivolume paper and online publication, 2009) entry on Sir John Everard (17th. century judge and politician).

Podcasts

Articles

  • A fragment of New Ross Corporation Records, 1635. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Vol. 144, (2014-5). pp 100-112.
  • ‘Additional Patrick Darcy Papers: letters from Anthony Martin, bishop of Meath, 1632 and to John Bramhall, with two legal opinions, 1661-2.’  Analecta Hibernica, No. 48 (2017). (in press)
  • 'Archbishop John Bramhall and Church lands in Athboy, 1641-1663. ' Ríocht na Midhe, xxviii (2017), pp 91-113.

Book chapters:

  • Mount Taragh’s triumph: commitment and organisation  in the early stages of the 1641 rebellion in Meath.  in E. Darcy, A. Margey and E. Murphy   (eds.),  The 1641 Depositions and the Irish Rebellion.  (London, Pickering & Chatto, 2012).  pp 51-63.
  • The Communities of Clonmel, 1608-1649.  in R. Armstrong and T. Ó hAnnracháin (eds),  Community in early modern Ireland.  Dublin: Four Courts, 2006.  pp 103-119.
  • The Irish elections of 1640-1641. in  C. Brady and J. Ohlmeyer (eds.),  British interventions in early modern Ireland. Cambridge University Press, 2005.  pp 186-206.   
  • Ireland and the Third University: attendance at the Inns of Court, 1603-1649.  in D. Edwards (ed.), Regions and rulers in Ireland, 1100-1650: essays for Kenneth Nicholls.  Dublin: Four Courts, 2004.  pp 217-236. 
  • Parliament men and the confederate association.  in M. O Siochrú (ed.),  Kingdoms in crisis: Ireland in the 1640s; essays in honour of  Donal Cregan.  Dublin: Four Courts, 2001. pp 90-105.

Teaching

I teach palaeography on the M.Phil. in Medieval History, the M.Phil. in Early Modern History and advanced palaeography to Ph.D. students.  Most of the classes are held in libraries and archives, working with original manuscripts, from the periods 1000-1700 and written in English, French, Irish and Latin.  I really enjoy introducing students to primary research materials in my classes.

Contact Details

Room 3147
Department of History
Trinity College
Dublin 2.

Telephone: +353 1 896 1020
Fax: +353 1 896 3995
Email: mcgratbb@tcd.ie