12 May 2026
Dr Kieran McConaghy (Lecturer in Terrorism and Political Violence at the School of International Relations)
Tell us about your research and how it connects to memory/identity studies?
My research focuses on the history of political violence in Ireland. I have conducted research projects in the past which have analysed British security policy in the North of Ireland between 1968 and 1998, and the impact that it had in shaping the conflict there, often euphemistically known as ‘The Troubles’. Another of my research interests has been how folk music in Ireland has been used to commemorate conflict in Ireland, served as a tool of resistance to political domination, helped shape community boundaries and has moulded political and social identities across the island.
What are you working on now?
Recently I have turned my attentions to individuals and movements in Irish political history who defy simple binaries and who challenge what we might think we know about communal identity. Such figures are often omitted from histories of conflict in Ireland and are rarely commemorated. This has included archival work on Irish Catholics with British military experience who later joined vigilante groups and Irish republican movements over the last two hundred years. It aims to understand the contribution they made to the organisations they joined and how these people understood their own political allegiances.