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Professor Eunan O'Halpin

Fellow Emeritus (History)
      
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Professor Eunan O'Halpin

Fellow Emeritus (History)

 Eunan.OHalpin@tcd.ie

 


Eunan O'Halpin retired in September 2020 from the Bank of Ireland Chair of Contemporary Irish History,and as Director of the Trinity Research Centre for Contemporary Irish History. He was previously Professor of Government at Dublin City University (1998-2000). Educated at UCD and Cambridge, where he researched the interwar British Treasury, he has written widely on aspects of 20th Irish and British history and politics. His most recent books are 'Kevin Barry: an Irish Rebel in Life and Death' (Dublin, 2020),'The Dead of the Irish Revolution' (New Haven and London, 2020) (with Daithi O Corrain), and 'Spying on Ireland: British Intelligence and Irish Neutrality during the Second World War' (Oxford, 2008). His current research interests include Afghanistan and the belligerents during the Second World War, Ireland's civil wars, 1921-23, and Anglo-Irish relations and the Northern Ireland Troubles. He is a Member (2003) of the Royal Irish Academy and a Fellow (2003) of Trinity College Dublin. In 2012 he was Visiting Fellow at the Jawaharlal Nehru University Institute of Advanced Studies in Delhi, carrying out research in the National Archives of India and in the Nehru Memorial Library. Professor O'Halpin has supervised thirty Trinity Ph.Ds on recent Irish and British history, many of which have since been reworked for publication as monographs with university presses in the UK and Ireland. Professor O'Halpin served as an elected member of the Board of Trinity College from 2005 to 2012, and from 2016 to 2020.He was a member of the National Archives Advisory Council (2003-7) and the Department of Justice Archives Advisory Group (2006-10), and is a former chair of the Royal Irish Academy National Committee for the Study of International Affairs and of its National Committee for Historical Studies. He is a joint editor of the Royal Irish Academy Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series (1996-_), and a member of the International Board of 20th Century British History. Together with Dr Anne Dolan (TCD), Dr Michael Kennedy (Royal Irish Academy), and Dr Deirdre McMahon (University of Limerick), he convenes the weekly Research Seminar in Contemporary Irish History. Professor O'Halpin is a member of the government's Expert Advisory Group on Commemorations (2012-), and of the Barristers Professional Standards Appeals Board Board (2012-).
  Afghanistan   Anglo-Irish relations   Intelligence Studies   Irish History
Project Title
 Afghanistan and the Second World War
From
2006
To
2020
Summary
This project has grown considerably in scope over the last six years. The overall aim remains to explore the impact of the war on Afghanistan, and to examine the means by which she avoided being drawn into the conflict despite her proximity to key belligerents - British India, and the Soviet Union - and the activities and plans of the Axis powers. It is based largely on research in British and American government records, which include a large amount of intercepted communications of the Afghan and other neutral and Axis states, as well as on significant private collections. Research in the National Archives of India and the Nehru Memorial Library in 2012 has enabled the further development of the project. It also opened up an unexpected vein of inquiry into the fate of Jews in Afghanistan, resulting in an article in Holocaust and Genocide Studies 30, no. 2 (Fall, 2016), pp. 298-327, and a number of entries with Dr Sara Koplik have been accepted for the revised Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World (1st ed., Brill, 2010). Anarticle on British Cryptanalyis and China, 1937-1945, has recently appeared in Twentieth Century China 42, no. 2, May 2017, pp. 198-212. Further papers are in preparation dealing with Axis and with British intelligence concerning Afghanistan, and with Soviet communications concerning the USSR's southern frontiers in the 1930s.
Funding Agency
TCD Arts and Social Sciences Benefactions Fund; IIIS
Programme
Personal research
Project Type
Monograph and articles
Person Months
69
Project Title
 British Intelligence and the Northern Ireland crisis, 1965-98
From
1 Dec. 2007
To
30 June 2010
Summary
This project explores explore the role of intelligence in British and Irish management of the Northern Ireland crisis from 1969 onwards. It also looks at how the two states negotiated understandings on security issues, on how their dealings in this delicate area were managed, and on how such dealings were managed at the professional interagency level as well as at the top intergovernmental table. The study also explores the extent to which security and terrorism issues were reflected in the diplomatic activities of both governments in the United States, as well as probing the changing perspective of successive American governments on the broader Northern Ireland issue. Drawing largely on British, Irish and American official records, it looks both at the highest levels of assessment and task setting in Whitehall, and at the operational performance of intelligence gatherers and assessors. It addresses questions arising from problems of leakage and collusion between the security forces and paramilitary groups, and issues surrounding the interrogation regime for prisoners and detainees. The latter problems were particularly significant in terms of Anglo-Irish relations, as London felt that Dublin played these issues up gratuitously. I hope to complete a monograph based on this research in 2011.
Funding Agency
IRCHSS
Programme
Small Projects
Project Type
Individual
Person Months
20
Project Title
 The Dead of the Irish Revolution
From
Nov 2003
To
Nov. 2020
Summary
This project aims to establish who died where and in what circumstances and at who's hands as a result of Irish political violence between 1912 and 1923. The first volume arising from the project, by Eunan O'Halpin and Dr Daithi O Corrain, covering the years 1917 to 1921, was published by Yale University Press in October 2020.
Funding Agency
IRCHSS
Programme
Major Projects
Person Months
72

Details Date
Member, National Archives Advisory Council 2002-07
Member, Katherine Kavanagh Trust Since 1998
Secretary, Military Heritage of Ireland Trust 2000-5
Department of Justice Archives Advisory Group 2006
Member, Royal Irish Academ National Committee for History, since 1989 (Chairman, 2001-3) Member, Royal Irish Academy National Committee for the Study of International Relations, since 1993 (Chairman, 1996-99)
Military Service Pensions Project Academic Advisory Board 2009-
Member, Barristers' Professional Conduct Appeals Board 2012 -
Member, Expert Advisory Group on Commemorations 2012-
Member, Board of Trinity College 2005-12
Member, Barristers Professional Conduct Appeals Board 2012-
Royal Irish Academy Committe for Historical Studies 2014-
Frequent contributor on historical and current affairs on RTE Radio 1 and Newstalk106, and occasionally on British, European and American broadcast media. 2000-
Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
French Basic Basic Basic
Details Date From Date To
Member, Royal Irish Academy 2003
Female Revolutionaries and Political Violence in India and Ireland 1919-1939 in, editor(s)Atwal,J, Breathnach, C and S.A. Buckley , Gender and History: Ireland 1852-1922, London, Routledge, 2023, pp265 - 281, pp265-81 , [Eunan O'Halpin], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text
Ciara Breathnach and Eunan O'Halpin, Sexual assault and fatal violence against women during the Irish War of Independence, 1919"1921: Kate Maher"s murder in context , Medical Humanities, (2022;1), 2021, p94 - 103, p94-103 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text
Eunan O'Halpin, Kevin Barry: An Irish Rebel in Life and Death, 1st, Dublin, Merrion Press, 2020, 1 - 260pp, Book, PUBLISHED
Eunan O'Halpin and Daithi O Corrain, The Dead of the Irish Revolution, 1st, London and New Haven, Yale University Press, 2020, 1 - 706pp, Book, PUBLISHED
'How history helps: Michael Russell's IrishThrillers in, editor(s)Elizabeth Mannion and Brian Cliff , Guilt Rules All: Irish Mystery, Detective and Crime Fiction, Syracuse, NY, Syracuse University Press, 2020, pp90 - 108, [Eunan O'Halpin], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
'Afghanistan, 1939-1945: from linchpin to backwater' in, editor(s)Andre Gerolymatos and Denis Smyth , Neutral Countries as Clandestine Battlegrounds, 1939-1968: Between Two Fires:, Lanham, Lexington Books, 2020, pp179 - 202, [Eunan O'Halpin], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Eunan O'Halpin, PJ Moloney's 1916 journal and an introduction, Tipperary Historical Journal , (32), 2019, p132 - 153, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
"Between Two Hells": the Social, Political and Military Backgrounds and Motivations of the 121 TDs Who Voted For or Against the Anglo-Irish Treaty in January 1922' in, editor(s)Liam Weeks and Micheal O Fathartaigh , The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State, Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 2018, pp113 - 135, [Eunan O'Halpin and Mary Staines], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
'Endword: Ireland looking outwards, 1880-2016 in, editor(s)Thomas Bartlett , Cambridge History of Ireland Volume 4: 1880 to the Present, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp809 - 838, [Eunan O'Halpin], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Volume XI 1957-61, Michael Kennedy, Dermot Keogh, Eunan O'Halpin, Kate O'Malley, Bernadette Whelan, 1st, (Documents on Irish Foreign Poicy), Dublin:, Royal Irish academy, 2018, - 1-433, Critical Edition (Book), PUBLISHED
  

Page 1 of 12
Personal Loss and the "Trauma of Internal War": The Cases of W.T. Cosgrave and Seán Lemass' in, editor(s)Melania Terrazas Gallego , Trauma and Identity in Contemporary Irish Culture , Berlin, Peter Lang, 2020, pp135 - 149, [Eunan O'Halpin], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
The Brigade Activity Reports in Context in, editor(s)Cecile Gordon , The Military Service Pensions Collection: the Brigade Activity Reports, Dublin, Department of Defence, 2019, pp28 - 43, [Eunan O'Halpin], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
The Brigade Activity Reports in Context in, editor(s)Cecile Gordon , The Brigade Activity Reports in Context in, The Military Service Pensions Collection: the Brigade Activity Reports , Dublin, Department of Defence, 2019, pp28 - 43, [Eunan O'Halpin], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Eunan O'Halpin, PJ Moloney's 1916 Journal and an Introduction, Tipperary Historical Journal 2019, 2019, p132 - 153, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Eunan O'Halpin, 'No singing and dancing': reassessing border security co-operation, 1969-1998, Research Seminar in Contemporary Irish History, Long Room Hub, TCD, 11 March 2015, Conference Paper, PRESENTED
Eunan O'Halpin, The Fate of Indigenous and Soviet Central Asian Jews in Afghanistan, 1933-1945, British Jewish History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, London, 28 October 2014, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED
Eunan O'Halpin, German Intrigues in Ireland and Afghanistan during the First World War, Recent Research on World War One and the Role of the Irish in Gallipoli, Koc University, Instanbul, Turkey, 16 April 2015, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED
Eunan O'Halpin, Afghanistan and the belligerents, 1939-1945: intelligence competition and cooperation in a neutral state, Study Group on Intelligence meeting, Royal United Services Institution, Whitehall, London, 6 February 2015, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED

  


Award Date
Albert College Award for Research, Dublin City University 1999-2000
Irish and British 20th century political and administrative history; unnatural infant death in Ireland (with Dr Ciara Breathanch, University of Limerick); intelligence history; international relations, with particular reference to intelligence and terrorism in the twentieth century; belligerent competition in Afghanistan during the Second World War; British policy towards Afghan and Central Asian Jewish communities, 1933-47