Stephen Kelly, Associate Professor in Modern History and Head of History, Politics and International Relations, has been awarded a University College Dublin (UCD) Humanities Institute Visiting Fellowship, 2021.
On receiving this prestigious award, Associate Professor Kelly said he was highly honoured and deeply grateful to the selection committee and looks forward to fostering further academic links between Liverpool Hope University and UCD.
It is envisaged that Associate Professor Kelly will spend several weeks in Dublin (between March and April 2021), during which time he will conduct research on the life of Gerald Boland. Boland was a founding father of Fianna Fáil and was Irish government minister for almost 20 years - minister for posts and telegraphs 1933-1936; minister for lands and fisheries 1936-1939; and minister for justice 1939-1948 and 1951-1954.
Stephen said: “Boland played a central role during the formative years of the emerging Independent Irish state. However, to date, Boland’s prominent – and occasionally controversial – period in the public limelight has been habitually understudied. This research project seeks to address this historical anomaly by publishing an annotated and revised version of Gerald Boland’s unpublished memoir.”
Associate Professor Kelly’s forthcoming monograph, Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Party and the Northern Ireland conflict, 1975-1990 will be published by Bloomsbury Press in January 2021.