National Irish Studies Conference Speakers

Thank you to all the wonderful speakers who have given their time, free of charge, to provide a huge range of topics at our conferences (click on each year to see the speakers below!).

1988

  • Prof. Emrys Evans: Keynote speech on Irish Studies in UK
  • Prof. Pat Buckland: Irish Studies Institute, Liverpool University
  • George Boyce: Irish Studies at A/S level
  • Siobhan Ui Neill: Irish language Examinations at GCSE
  • Teresa Quick & Les Hankin: Irish Cultural Studies pack
  • Nessan Danaher, Chris Warn, Roger Swift: Irish Studies and the GCSE Modular Scheme

1997

  • Fr. Sean O Duinn: Sacred Sites, myths and legends
  • Meryn Busteed: Researching the Irish in 19th century M/c
  • Professor Frank Neal: Famine fever – study of its affects in M/c 1840
  • Kino films: Irish short films
  • Kate Thompson: Developing and examining the Irish language
  • Anna Martin: Irish women; heroines and writers
  • Peter Gray: Great Irish Famine: Interpretation and responses 

1998

  • Eddie Lenahan: Irish Storytelling
  • Meryn Busteed: Coping with Nineteenth Century Manchester
  • Linda Sever: Ireland’s Opportunity: 1798
  • Bernard Brown: 1798 rebellion
  • Janet Wallwork: Nothing but the same old story.
  • Michael Parker: Irish Novels by Mclaverty, Deane, Madden
  • Mary McAndrew: Music of the Exiles: Irish trad. Music in UK
  • Caoimhghin O Brollachain: White boys of Killkenny
  • Caoimhghin O Brollachain: The dog with eight legs. Works of O Laoghair
  • Fergus O Connor/Liam McLoughlin: Ireland’s Islands
  • Prof. Emrys Evans: Celtic Gold and Celtic Genius

1999

  • Prof. Emrys Evans: Irish words in the English language
  • Frank Neal: The Orange Order in M/c and L/pool
  • Fergus O Connor: The Blasket Island writers
  • Janet Wallwork: The buildings of Ireland
  • Mervyn Busteed: Anglo-Irish Landlordism
  • Fran O Boyle: Stories from the Glens of Antrim
  • Paul Gosling: Archaeology of Clare Island
  • Professor Frank Neal: Sectanian violence in L/pool/Black 47
  • Liam McLoughlin: Manchester Martyrs 

2000

  • Professor Christine Kineally: Great Calamity
  • Mervyn Busteed: The Plantations of Ulster
  • Sean Hutton: Works of Professor Joe Lee
  • Jim O Hara: Irish history through political cartoons
  • Michael Sheehan: Irish Manchester
  • Loreto Todd: Origins of Irish surnames

2001

  • Prof. Mary Hickman: Second generation Irish identity
  • Prof. Marianne Elliot: Catholics of Northern Ireland
  • Bernadette Dyer: Literature of the Troubles in NI
  • Mary Warrener: Brigid; Saint and Goddess
  • Mary Warrene: Colmcille of Ireland
  • Kevin Bean: Future of Natl/Republicanism
  • Michael Walsh: Irish contribution to TU
  • Janet Wallwork: Origins of anti Irish racism
  • Fergus O Connor: William Wilde 2001

2002

  • Kath McLoughlin: Celtic women in legend
  • Ian Mc Keane: The Boyne and After; Myths/realities
  • Mervyn Busteed: Remembering the Martyrs in M/c
  • Baroness May: Blood Irish women and Trade Unions
  • Bill Sweeney: 70 yrs of RTE
  • Catherine Morris: Cultural revivals in Belfast
  • Mary Warrener: Chidren of Lir
  • Ian McKeane: War of independence through french eyes
  • Janet Wallwork: Private visit to John Rylands Library

2003

LIAM MCLOUGHLIN COACH TOUR OF MANCHESTER MARTYRES SITES 2003

2004

  • Frank Nugent: Seek the Frozen lands
  • Prof Patrick Buckland: Ireland in Schools programme
  • Bill Simpson: Trinity College Library and it’s treasures
  • Alan Keegan: Irish M/c in photographs
  • Peter Watson: Surnames
  • Professor Christine Kineally: A new history of Ireland

2005

  • Fergus O Connor: Derek Hill and painters of Tory island
  • Frank Nugent: South Aris
  • Joe Bradley: Celtic Mind
  • David McGuinness: St. Patrick and his legacy
  • Eamonn Coleman: Works of Louis McNiece
  • Paula Millward: Countess Markievicz

2006

  • Prof. Alan Ford: Sectarianism and religious hatred in Northern Ireland 
  • Michael Sheehan: Manchester’s Irish Story
  • Gemma Clarke: The Free State in flames
  • Péidi Ó Seighin: A walk along the western seaboard of Ireland 
  • John Dunleavy: Michael Davitt
  • Louise Campbell: Holy wells of Ireland

2007

  • Liam Harte: Second-generation Irish identities in fiction and autobiography’
  • Mervyn Busteed: Normans in Ireland
  • Jarleth Cunnane: Northabout: Sailing the Northwest and Northeast Passages
  • Maria Luddy: Magdeline Institutions in Ireland
  • Niall Murph: An Leabhar Mhór (The Big Book)
  • Mary Warrener: CELTIC YEAR; a spiritual dimension

2008

  • Professor John McGurk: Flight of the Earls; prelude to the plantation of Ulster
  • Professor John Belchem: Liverpool’s Irish Story
  • Catherine Feeney & Maria Henderson: Maude Gonne – English-born Irish revolutionary, feminist and actress
  • Nessan Danaher: Tom Barclay’s Memories and Medleys
  • Mervyn Busteed: Castle Caldwell. Co. Fermanagh
  • Brian Ryan: Irish Lights; story of Irish lighthouses

2009

  • Maria Luddy: Prostitution in nineteenth century Ireland
  • Brian Ryan: Irish Lights: Story of Irish lighthouses
  • Jim Hunter: Ireland Land of Songs
  • Yvonne Whelan: Symbolic landscapes of ireland
  • Geraldine O Malley: Hammersley The assimilation of the Irish in Britain

2010

  • Kevin McNamara: Aspects of Labour policy towards Northern Ireland
  • Mervyn Busteed: Celebrating St. Patrick’s day in 19th century Manchester
  • Mary Hickman: What does the Irish Diaspora mean
  • Geraldine O Malley: Hammersley Exploring the polarity of 2nd generation Irish labour market
  • Patrick Gallagher: The Irish Indentured / Slave trade to Barbados
  • Arthur Taylor: Celtic history and language links
  • Liam McLoughlin: The mapping of Ireland 2010

2011

  • Maria Luddy: Matchmaking in Ireland
  • Jim Hunter: Yeats and Sligo
  • John McAuliffe: Seamus Heaney’s poems
  • Mick Molloy: The titanic village of Ireland – Addergoole
  • Gemma Clarke: Intimidation, expulsion & communities in conflict in Irish civil war
  • Christine Kinealy: Kindness of Strangers

2012

  • Christine Kinealy: Kindness of Strangers
  • Isabelle Bennett: Archaeology of the Dingle Peninsula
  • Pat Shine: St Columba
  • Michael Sheehan: Manchester Irish Identity
  • Yvonne Whelan: Landscapes of Irish Famine Memory
  • Mervyn Busteed: Irish Protestants in Manchester 

2013

  • Clare Cotter: Aran islands; 3 stepping stones out of Europe 
  • Sonja Tiernan: Eva Gore Booth
  • John Brandon: Story of the Dingle to Tralee railway
  • Angela Duffy: Irish infromers in the twentieth century
  • Nessan Danaher: Migration Narrative crossing the irish sea 1880-1930 

2014

  • Franc Meyers: Archaology of 1916 battlefield survey
  • Patrick Doyle: The Irish and the first World War
  • James Hackland & Catherine Feeney: The Gathering
  • Stephen Lally: Leaving of Loughrea
  • John McAuliffe: Shemus Heaney 

2015

  • Svend Kjeldsen: Historical and current developments in Manchester Irish music
  • Clare Downham:  The Battle of Clontarf in Irish History and Legend
  • Michael Sheehan: The history of the Irish in Manchester 
  • Francis O Neill: Beyond the Pale. Irish migration to Manchester before the great Famine
  • Mervin Busteed: The Church and the Manchester Irish

2016

  • Liam Harte: The 1916 Rising: An Introduction on Film
  • Sonja Tiernan: Countess Markieviez and the women of 1916
  • Jim Hunter:  The Earl Bishop 
  • Gemma Clark: Everyday Violence in the Irish civil war
  • John McAuliffe: Terrible and beautiful: Yeats, poetry and history in 1916

2017

  • Mervyn Busteed: The Manchester Martyrs, Reality, Myth and Legacy
  • Maria Luddy: How 2b happy though married; courtship & marriage in Ire 19th and early 20th century
  • Pat Shine: My Wild Altantic Way
  • Denis Madden: The blood on the
  • Fergus O Connor: Sir William Wilde, Dublin surgeon and father of Oscar

2018

  • Kevin Bean: Twenty years since the Good Friday agreement
  • Linda Ervine: The miracle that is Turas: Irish language in east Belfast
  • Michael Sheehan: The Red and the Green. MUFC and their Irish Links
  • Fergus O Connor: Valentia Island in the 19th century
  • Catherine Feeney: Women of Ireland

2019

  • Barra O Donnabhvan: The Victorian Convict Prison on Spike Island, Cork harbour 1847-1883
  • Jim Hunter: Patsy Dan Rodgers, King of Tory Island and painter
  • Francis O Neill Charles O Neill:  Victorian polymath and Irish Nationalist
  • Meryn Busteed: The Orange Order in the North West England 1807-1939 2019

2020

CANCELLED DUE TO COVID PANDEMIC

2021

  • Ciarán Wallace “Beyond 2022; Ireland’s virtual records treasury”.
  • Sam McGrath “Manchester’s role in the fight for Irish Independence: New sources and insights from the Military Pensions Collection , Dublin.”