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Professor Lindsey Earner-Byrne

Professor of Contemporary Irish History (History)

 LINDSEY.EARNER@tcd.ie

 


Biography

I am an historian of modern and contemporary Irish history, who engages with the core areas in the field, from the Revolution to Irish emigration, and has published widely on welfare, poverty, religion, gender and sexuality. My work has been driven by a quest to understand the impact of power on everyday life and how this history continues to inform contemporary Ireland. I create and foster scholarship in frontier areas such as gender-based violence, medical humanities, refugee and minority/marginalised groups, all with a particular concern for the intersections of class, gender, ethnicity and race. I work across disciplinary boundaries in the areas of history, law, sociology, health and gender studies. I have worked with human rights organisations to facilitate social justice in relation to legacy issues and my work informs public debate, government commissions of inquiry, and policy.

Research Projects

 AHRC Network entitled: O-PFV: One-Parent Families and Vulnerability Network
 COST ACTION CA18119 Who Cares in Europe?

Representations

Details Date
Chair of Expert Advisory Committee for the permanent 20th Century History of Ireland Galleries at the Museum of Ireland Since 2021
Board member of Irish Manuscripts Commission Since 2022
President of Irish Historical Studies 2022
Member of Editorial Board of Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History and Literature [C] Since 2016

Memberships

Membership of Professional Institutions, Associations, Societies

Details Date From Date To
President of Irish Historical Studies January 2022 December 2024
Executive Committee Member of Women's History Association of Ireland January 2023
Irish Manuscripts Commission 2022 present
Member of Editorial Board of Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History and Literature [C] 2016
Chair of Expert Advisory Committee for the permanent 20th Century History of Ireland Galleries at the Museum of Ireland Since 2021 2024
`The borders of abortion and identity: Moral shadowboxing on the island of Ireland, 1920-2018' in, editor(s)D. Toner and Z. Feghali , Routledge Companion to Gender and Borderlands, London, Routledge, 2025, [Lindsey Earner-Byrne and Diane Urquhart], Book Chapter, IN_PRESS
`Cherish and the Support of Single Mothers in Ireland Ireland, 1970s-1980s' in, editor(s)Laura Lee Downs, Clarisse Berthezène, Dominika Gruziel, Efi Avdela, Dimitra Lampropoulou , Mobilizing Welfare in Europe: The Unpolitical Politics of Social Action, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2024, [Lindsey Earner-Byrne], Book Chapter, IN_PRESS
Family life, Gender, Loss and the Civil War in, editor(s)Hélène O'Keeffe, John Crowley, Donal Ó Drisceoil, John Borgonovo, Mike Murphy , 'Atlas of the Irish Civil War: new perspectives', Cork, Ireland, Cork University Press, 2024, [Lindsey Earner-Byrne], Book Chapter, IN_PRESS
`Religion, Gender and Sexuality, 1922-1968' in, editor(s)G. Ganiel and A. Holmes , Oxford Handbook of Religion in Ireland, Oxford, England, Oxford University Press, 2024, [Lindsey Earner-Byrne], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Lindsey Earner-Bryne, "I felt I should be there, all these people talking on my behalf without consulting me": Gender, Experience and Expertise in the Irish Mixed Economy of Welfare, 1970-1990s, Historein, 21, (2), 2024, p1 - 19, Notes: [Open Access], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Efi Avdela, Lindsey Earner-Byrne, Dimitra Lampropoulou, Gendering the mixed economies of welfare: ruptures and trajectories in post-war Europe, Historein, 21, (2), 2024, p1 - 10, Notes: [Open Access], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
"Please say who are the dependents in this case": Female vulnerability, the male-breadwinner model, and the Military Service Pensions Collection' in, editor(s)Anne Dolan and Catríona Crowe , 'A Very Hard Struggle': Lives in the Military Service Pensions Collection, Dublin, Ireland, Department of Defence, Ireland, 2023, pp198 - 213, [Lindsey Earner-Byrne], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
`Donnybrook Magdalene Asylum and the Priorities of a Nation: A History of Respectability' in, editor(s)Mark Coen and Katherine O'Donnell , Dublin Magdalene Laundry: Church-State Power in Ireland, London, 2023, pp47 - 64, [Lindsey Earner-Byrne], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Lindsey Earner-Byrne, 'The Irish Family: Blame, Agency and the "Unmarried Mother Problem", 1980s-2021', Contemporary European History, 32, 2023, p270 - 286, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
`The wife of a plasterer tells the Archbishop of Dublin a secret: gender and poverty in the new Free State' in, editor(s)D. Gannon and F. McGarry , Ireland 1922, 2022, Royal Irish Academy, 2022, pp92 - 97, [Lindsey Earner-Byrne], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
  

Page 1 of 3
`Institutionalising Exclusion: Historicising Marginalisation in Modern Ireland' in, Machnamh 100: President of Ireland Centenary Reflections Volume 2, Ireland, Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, 2023, pp105 - 108, [Lindsey Earner-Byrne], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Lindsey Earner-Byrne, `Review Essay: The politics of marriage', Irish Historical Studies, 46, (169), 2022, p179 - 184, Journal Article, PUBLISHED

  

Research Interests

Description Of Research Interests

I am an historian of modern and contemporary Irish history, who engages with the core areas in the field, from the Revolution to Irish emigration, and has published widely on welfare, poverty, religion, gender and sexuality. My work has been driven by a quest to understand the impact of power on everyday life and how this history continues to inform contemporary Ireland. I create and foster scholarship in frontier areas such as gender-based violence, medical humanities, refugee and minority/marginalised groups, all with a particular concern for the intersections of class, gender, ethnicity and race. I have a proven track record of grant capture in all these areas and of working across disciplinary boundaries in the areas of history, law, sociology, health and gender studies. I have worked with human rights organisations to facilitate social justice in relation to legacy issues and my work informs public debate, government commissions of inquiry, and policy. Between 2018-2023, I worked on an international COST ACTION CA18119 - 'Who Cares in Europe?', which connected my disciplinary expertise with my conviction that historians have a responsibility to work with other disciplines to address pressing contemporary issues. This COST Action seeks to elucidate the current welfare and refugee crisis in Europe through interdisciplinary scholarship. It has resulted in several publications and initiatives including two peer-reviewed articles and one book chapter. I am currently in the early stages of building an AHRC-funded network entitled: O-PFV: One-Parent Families and Vulnerability Network. This network brings together leading historians in the field and key organisations, linked through imperial connections and/or historical relationships of cooperation, with a long history of advocating for one-parent families: One Family Ireland, One Parent Families Scotland, Gingerbread (England), Birthright (New Zealand) and Single Mother Families and the Council of Single Mothers and their Children (Australia). The aim is to provide fresh insights into particular periods, organisations and case studies, share archival and research material, and explore the potential of comparative perspectives to raising greater contemporary awareness and informing policy.