Alice Stopford Green and the recovery of the Kingdom of Meath

Irish Historical Studies, 2020

The publication in 1908 of 'The making of Ireland and its undoing 1200-1600' by the London-based Irish historian, Alice Stopford Green, provoked a controversy that reveals much about the deepening political tensions at the heart of historical practice in the decade before 1916. Stopford Green took a deliberately controversial approach to the rewriting of medieval Ireland that triggered a bombardment of both positive and negative reactions. Supporters of Irish home rule applauded the work for its innovative analysis and contemporary relevance. But the book elicited a surge of anguish from a united front of 'history men', who dismissed Mrs Green and her work as 'political' and largely fictitious. Anticipating the reaction from a profession that was predominantly sympathetic to a unionist interpretation, Stopford Green had a well-prepared plan that harnessed both her gender and her transnational networks of influence to maximise the dissemination of her radical re-imagining of the Gaelic world. By understanding these deeper strategies of defiance, Alice Stopford Green's history might be reclaimed as a key intervention in the structuring of both Ireland's national tradition and collective consciousness in preparation for independence. doi:10.1017/ihs.2020.40

Journal of Victorian Culture, 2014

Riocht na Midhe, 2019

Article in Riocht na Midhe, the Journal of the Meath Archaeological and Historical Society about the family of the historian and humanitarian, Alice Stopford Green.

This paper focuses on Eva Gore-Booth the political activist, examining the early development of her social awareness and seeks to explain why she rejected her privileged heritage. The paper outlines the history of the Gore-Booths in Ireland, focusing on how Eva’s generation of the family despised their own heritage. This research provides new insights into Eva’s early experiences in her home county of Sligo and examines campaigns orchestrated by her older brother, Josslyn, which appear to have influenced her later political activities in England.

Ríocht na Midhe, 2021

This article is an extended version of the lecture delivered at the unveiling of the plaque to Alice Stopford Green at the Old Courthouse, Kells, on 7 December 2019.

Familia, 2018

An exploration of how the descendants of United Irishman William Drennan responded to his legacy in the Home Rule period, examining particularly the work of Ruth Duffin, his great-grand-daughter, on editing his papers for publication, and on her understanding of her family's 'Irishness'.

Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society, 2020

This article examines the process that led to the amalgamation of Cumann na nGaedheal, the Centre Party and the National Guard from the perspective of the local organisations of all three in County Longford. The article appears in the 2015 issue of Teathbha, vol. 4 no. 2