1. Membership

The members of the Academy Committee for Historical Sciences (2011-13) were Dr Juliana Adelman, Dr Allan Blackstock, Dr Damian Bracken, Dr Marie Coleman, Professor Seán Connolly, Dr Bernadette Cunningham, Dr Catherine Cox, Dr Anne Dolan, Dr Lindsey Earner-Byrne, Professor Peter Gray, Professor David Hayton, Dr Janice Holmes, Professor James Kelly, Dr Jennifer Kelly, Professor Marian Lyons, Dr Ivar McGrath, Dr Deirdre McMahon, Professor Dáibhi Ó Cróinín, Declan O’Keeffe, Dónal Ó Catháin, Professor Felipe Ribeiro de Meneses, Dr Maryanne Valiulis.

2. Advocacy

The Committee contributed to the Academy’s defining of the Key Performance Indicators for Historians, and engaged in consultation with heads and representatives of Schools/Departments of History in Irish universities in developing its policy document. The Committee also continued to keep a watching brief on developments in regard to the National Library of Ireland, the National Archives of Ireland, the National Museum of Ireland, the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, and the Irish Manuscripts Commission. It made representations to the Irish Minister of Education about concerns caused by proposed legislative changes that would affect the work and status of these institutions in the Republic of Ireland, and concerns caused by the impairment of access for researchers to the collections in the custody of these institutions. It secured the support of the R.I.A. Board of Humanities in regard to some of these representations. The Committee defended the Studentship offered to History postgraduates by the National Library against proposals to discontinue the award, and members have represented the Committee on the selection board for the Studentship.

In correspondence, the Committee supported the Royal Historical Society’s position on the Finch Report on Open Access and the actions the Society is taking to highlight the dangerous consequences for research publications the report will have should its key recommendations be implemented. Concern was also expressed at the difficulties the proposals would cause for collaboration across two jurisdictions.

3. Second-level curriculum

The Committee, concerned by proposals to make History an elective subject for the Junior Certificate, attempted a collaborative response with the Irish History Teachers’ Association. Marian Lyons addressed their meeting in January 2012. The Committee submitted a letter to the Irish Minister of Education expressing concerns about the possible impact of curricular reform on the status of History in the Junior Certificate programme. In March 2013 Marian Lyons attended an I.H.T.A. seminar in Collins Barracks, Dublin, dedicated to the issue of History in the Junior Certificate programme. The Committee continues to monitor developments.

4. Conferences and publications

The thirtieth Irish Conference of Historians took place in N.U.I. Maynooth on 17-19 June 2011. It was organised under the joint auspices of St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, and the Department of History, N.U.I.M., by Marian Lyons and James Kelly, and took as its theme ‘Death and dying’. The conference was very well attended and attracted a wide range of speakers. Presentations were of a high standard, and speakers were invited to contribute to a collection (Historical Studies XXVIII) edited by James Kelly and Marian Lyons, and entitled Death and dying in Ireland, Britain, and Europe: historical perspectives (Irish Academic Press, 2013). The publication received a subvention from the Research Committee of St Patrick’s College.

In response to the Academy’s invitation to identify challenges facing Irish society and to consider how historians might respond to these, the Committee organised a highly successful two-day conference (13-14 September 2012) on the theme ‘Negotiating crisis in Irish history’. Seven speakers, including Baroness Nuala O’Loan, explored Ireland’s difficulties in the broader chronological spectrum of Irish history. The conference ended with a panel discussion chaired by John Bowman. Organised by Marian Lyons, Damian Bracken and Rebecca Farrell, the conference was supported by the Academy, by the Department of History, N.U.I.M., and by the School of History, U.C.C. 2012 also saw the publication of the proceedings of an additional A.C.H.S. conference held in 2009, under the title The Irish lord lieutenancy, c. 1541-1922, edited by Peter Gray and Olwen Purdue.

The next biennial Irish Conference of Historians, held in U.C.D. 7-8 June 2013, took the theme ‘Unravelling violence: historians, narratives, and meanings’. Again, it was very well attended, and featured the usual panel for early career scholars, as well as a wide variety of other panels and keynote lectures on subjects including violence in the Irish revolution; houghed soldiers in eighteenth-century Ireland; physical aggression in Irish mental hospitals; violence, birth and madness in nineteenth-century Britain, and violence and commemoration.

The Committee continued to support the publication of research through the series New Directions in Irish History, published by Irish Academic Press. In 2012, two new publications in the series appeared, Clíona Rattigan’s ‘What else could I do?’: single mothers and infanticide, Ireland 1900-1950, and Paul Ryan’s Asking Angela Macnamara: an intimate history of Irish lives. The Committee took a number of measures to promote awareness of the series as a publishing outlet for postgraduate and other research of a high standard.

The Committee also fostered research in the discipline by continuing to support Irish History Online (I.H.O.) (www.irishhistoryonline.ie), the online bibliographic database hosted since 2010 on the Academy’s server, under the management of the Academy Library, and operating under the auspices of both the Academy and the A.C.H.S. By 1 May 2013 the website contained over 82,000 bibliographic records. I.H.O. was kept up-to-date by a team of volunteers, included Máirín Cassidy (U.C.D. Library), Ciaran Nicholson (T.C.D. Library), and Bernadette Cunningham, the managing editor (R.I.A. Library). Nessa Malone and Ciaran McCabe both joined the team of volunteers in 2013. Technical support was provided by Wayne Aherne (R.I.A.), and Jacqueline Hill served as convenor of the managing committee. The A.C.H.S. provided a modest subvention in the form of honoraria for the compilers, and the service continued to be free of charge to users. The Committee considers that I.H.O. is a fundamentally important service to all those interested in Ireland’s history.

5. Sub-committee for the History of Science

The A.C.H.S. continued to work closely with this sub-committee in 2011-13, and arrangements to co-ordinate the work of the sub-committee and the parent committee were formalised. The A.C.H.S. contributed to the funding of the sub-committee’s conference, held in Q.U.B. on 20 April 2012, on the theme ‘The history of science, technology, and medicine in Ireland’.

6. International Committee for Historical Sciences

Marian Lyons was elected to be the Committee’s I.C.H.S. representative, and to attend its events and meetings.

May 2013

Damian Bracken

Secretary