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We are delighted to announce that Dr Eamon Maher has received a College of Arts Visiting Fellowship to work with the Centre for Irish Studies and the University Library as part of his ongoing research on John McGahern this summer.

Eamon Maher is a lecturer in the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management and Joint Principal Investigator (with Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire) of the Centre for Irish Studies. He founded and acted as Director of the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies (NCFIS) from 2005-2025, and served as President of its offshoot, AFIS (Association of Franco-Irish Studies), from 2005-2020. In 2016 Eamon was made an Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, an Honour bestowed on him by the French Government for the promotion of Franco-Irish Studies. Eamon has written widely on representations of Catholicism in 20th-century fiction in France and Ireland and has published two book-length studies and several articles on the Irish writer John McGahern, on whom he is a recognised international expert.

He is co-editing the Companion to John McGahern, which is due to appear in 2026, the 20th anniversary of the author’s death. His most recent monograph, which will appear in 2026, is titled The Prophetic Voice: Jean Sulivan’s Ongoing Relevance in France and Ireland. Eamon did his PhD thesis on Sulivan and also published a monograph in French, with L’Harmattan, on this intriguing Breton priest-writer who lived from 1913-1980, which were seismic years for France and the world in general. Eamon is General Editor of the highly successful Irish Studies series, Reimagining Ireland, as well as of Studies in Franco-Irish Relations, both with Peter Lang Oxford. He has edited and co-edited numerous books in these series and is a regular contributor to The Irish Times.