Category: Community News

Dr Sorcha O’Brien
Lecturer in Design History & Theory, IADT, Dun Laoghaire

Dr. O’Brien is a design historian interested in technology and identity, in both 3D physical and digital forms. With a background in industrial and digital design, she is interested in issues surrounding the design of electrical appliances, computers and networked devices at work and in the home. She completed her AHRC-funded PhD on the representation of electrical technology in 1920s Ireland at the University of Brighton, which was published in 2017 by Irish Academic Press as Powering the Nation: Images of the Shannon Scheme and Electricity in Ireland. Dr O’Brien was the curator of the exhibition Kitchen Power: Women’s Experiences of Rural Electrification, which ran in the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life from July 2019 to December 2020, as part of her AHRC Early Career Leadership Fellow, through Kingston University.

The Kitchen Power research project looks at electrical ‘labour saving’ appliances in the Irish home in the wake of rural electrification in the 1950s and 1960s. Influenced by Ruth Schwartz Cowan’s groundbreaking More Work for Mother (1983), it focuses on the intersection of gender roles, electrical technology and ideas about domesticity in the rural kitchen. As a design historian, Dr O’Brien uses objects and advertisements as a way into the analysis of housewives and their appliances, as well as the organisational, educational and networking roles of the ESB and the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA). As well as the NMI exhibition, the project included a number of oral history interviews, and a collaborative textile art project with Age & Opportunity and women in the Castlebar area, and she is currently working on the accompanying book.

Registration via Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/dRobrIcqQoedCTNFbPNpcQ

The Irish Conference of Historical Sciences will hold it’s biennial symposium on the topic of Professor Raymond Gillespie’s impact on local history. Prof. Gillespie’s 1998 book co-authored with Myrtle Hill, Doing Irish Local History: pursuit and practice, opened up the field of local history to academic researchers and had an enduring legacy in educating generations of students in the field, and in encouraging academic rigour in the area of study. These points were reiterated in Prof. Gillespie’s paper to the ICHS symposium in Belfast in 2019 on the topic of public history. His contributions to many historical societies, including those affiliated with the ICHS, inspired engagement and excellence.

To reflect Prof. Gillespie’s legacy to local history the symposium will consist of two papers. Dr. Brendan Scott deliver a paper titled ‘The Book of Fenagh: a case study in local history’. Prof. Marian Lyons, Maynooth University, will give a paper entitled ‘Thomas Arthur, M.D. (1593-1675): a case study of medical practice and moneylending in Limerick’.

The seminar will be begin at 11.30am on Saturday 23rd November at the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland at 63 Merrion Square, and there will be light refreshments afterwards which will be a chance to remember Ray in an informal setting.  All are welcome but we would recommend booking a seat as it is limited. To do so please contact Kieran Hoare, our secretary at kieran.hoare@universityofgalway.ie by Friday 22nd November.

Clans of Ireland (Finte na hÉireann), together with the Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains (Buanchomhairle Thaoisigh hÉireann) and the History Department of Trinity College, Dublin alert their correspondents that the deadline for submission of essays is 1 June 2024.  

Entry is open to all persons over 18 years who are NOT on the academic staff of a history department in any third-level institution.

Encouraging evidence-based and original research is a chief aim of the Clans of Ireland. One palpable way to encourage this is to showcase excellence in scholarship which has been applied to researching, promoting and promulgating Irish-Gaelic history. 

Clans of Ireland and the Standing Council in association with the History Department of Trinity College, Dublin, and History Ireland magazine, offer a prize of €500 for the winning entrant. At the May 2025 Clans of Ireland Cultural Summit the winner will be invited to present their findings and be presented with the Ó Ceallaigh Dal gCais Perpetual Cup. Essays will be evaluated by Dr. Katharine Simms, Mr. Luke McInerney and the evaluation team.

Further information on this competition can be found HERE

Prize: The winning entrant will receive a prize of €250.

Eligibility: The competition is open to undergraduate and postgraduate students. Essays must be written in English and be the work of students who are enrolled in a third level institution in Ireland or abroad, or within one year expiration of that enrollment.

Essay/Submission Details: Essays must be no longer than 5,000 words (including all references). All entries must use an accepted referencing style (such as APA, Harvard, Oscola), be typed, double-spaced, and include an abstract of approximately 100 words. 

Deadline: Essays should be received no later than 31st May 2024.

For full details and to enter see: https://www.irishlegalhistorysociety.org/?page_id=1464

Date: 26/27 April 2024
Location: Carlow College
Call for papers:
The annual meeting of the HSTM Network Ireland will be held this year, in person, at Carlow College. We welcome the submission of organised panels as well as individual papers on any topic related to the history of science, medicine, and technology. We encourage scholars at any stage of their career from inside and outside of academic institutions.
We encourage papers, panels, and poster on themes, such as:
· The past and future of the HSTM of Ireland
· Decolonise HSTM and/or decolonial research in HSTM
· HSTM between the local and the global, the small and the large, the celebrated and invisible
· Feminist and gender-critical approaches to HSTM
· Research and engineering for social equality and equity
· HSTM in the classroom, at the desk, and in public
· Disability between science, technology, and medicine
Submissions of papers on any theme relating to HSTM are welcome, and need not be related specifically to Ireland. Abstracts (no more than 300 words) and a short biography (no more than 100 words) should be submitted by 22 February 2024 using this Google Form. We will notify all prospective speakers at the latest by the end of February.
The conference fee will not exceed 20 euro per person to include tea/coffee/lunch.
We are a small organisation and cannot support speaker travel expenses. Please note that there are a number of small grants for conference travel for postgraduate students available from other organisations, such as the Society for the Social History of Medicine (https://sshm.org/bursaries/).
Carlow College is in the centre of Carlow town, five minutes walk from trains and busses. The train is less than one hour from Dublin and Waterford on the Dublin Waterford rail line, and Carlow is connected by bus to many other locations, including a direct link to Dublin Airport. It is a historic building, and the second oldest third level institution in Ireland, after Trinity College, Dublin. There are several bed and breakfasts, hotels, and Air BNBs available locally.
Please direct any queries to Dr Ida Milne and the HSTM conference committee at HSTMNetworkIreland@gmail.com