Irish Studies Academic Staff
Academic Director, Méabh Ni Fhuartáin, M.A., Ph.D
Director of Irish Music Studies at the Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway and Lecturer in Irish Music Studies, Méabh is particularly interested in the institutionalization of musical revival in Ireland during the twentieth century and popular music studies. Formerly an IRCHSS scholar, she has contributed articles and reviews to a variety of journals and is also Popular Music subject editor of the landmark Encyclopedia of Music in Ireland (UCD Press, 2013). Co-editor with Dr David Doyle of Ordinary Life and Popular Culture in Ireland (IAP, 2013), she is centrally involved in the development of the research network Comhrá Ceoil: Irish Music Studies at NUI Galway and has published in numerous international journals and collections.
SS115 Representing Ireland, Literature and Film
Director: Timothy Keane, M.A. M.A., Ph.D
Tim Keane is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago, the University of St. Thomas (Minn.) and the University of Galwat. He teaches for the Centre for Irish Studies and the Department of English at the University of Galway. His main research fields are nineteenth and twentieth century Irish literature, working-class literature, popular culture and postcolonialism. He has published on radicalism and the culture of Irish nationalism.
SS116 The Archaeological Heritage of Ireland
Director: Carleton Jones, M.A., Ph.D
Carleton Jones received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is an expert in the prehistoric archaeology of Ireland. For several seasons he directed a survey and excavation project focussed on the prehistoric landscape of the Burren in Co. Clare. This work was supported by the Heritage Council and Royal Irish Academy. He has published various papers on his research and has also published two books, ‘The Burren and the Aran Islands – Exploring the Archaeology’ and ‘Temples of Stone – Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland’.
SS117 Irish History: Conflict, Identity and the Shaping of Modern Ireland
Director: Tomás Finn, M.A., Ph.D
Tomás Finn holds his doctorate in History from the National University of Ireland. He lectures in the Department of History at University of Galway. His research interests include modern Irish and British history and politics, the role of intellectuals, public policy, Church-state relations and Northern Ireland. He is author of Tuairim, intellectual debate and policy formulation: Rethinking Ireland: Rethinking Ireland, 1954-75, (Manchester, 2012).
SS118 Introduction to Art in Ireland : Exploring Ireland’s vibrant artistic heritage from prehistory to the ‘Golden Age’
Director: Dr Mags Mannion
Dr Mags Mannion holds a doctorate in archaeology from the National University of Ireland, Galway where she currently lectures with the Department of Geography and Archaeology. Her research interests include the art and artisans of the Iron Age and Early Christian and Viking periods in Ireland. Dr Mannion has presented her research at both national and international conferences and has published a number of papers and a book Glass beads from Early Medieval Ireland: Classification, Dating, Social performance. She regularly participates in Irish heritage events presenting demonstrations and workshops on medieval bead making and body ornament.
SS119 Creative Writing: Poetry and Fiction
Director: Kevin Higgins
Kevin Higgins is co-organiser of Over The Edge literary events in Galway. He has published four full collections of poems: The Boy With No Face (2005), Time Gentlemen, Please (2008), Frightening New Furniture (2010), & The Ghost In The Lobby (2014). His poems also feature in Identity Parade – New British and Irish Poets (Bloodaxe, 2010) and in The Hundred Years’ War: modern war poems (Ed Neil Astley, Bloodaxe May 2014). Kevin was satirist-in-residence with the alternative literature website The Bogman’s Cannon 2015-16. 2016 – The Selected Satires of Kevin Higgins was published by NuaScéalta in 2016. Song of Songs 2:0 – New & Selected Poems was published by Salmon in Spring 2017. Kevin is a highly experienced workshop facilitator and several of his students have gone on to achieve publication success. He has facilitated poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre and taught Creative Writing at Galway Technical Institute for the past eleven years. Kevin also teaches on the NUIG BA Creative Writing Connect programme. His poems have been praised by, among others, Tony Blair’s biographer John Rentoul, Observer columnist Nick Cohen, and Sunday Independent columnist Gene Kerrigan; and have been quoted in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Times (London), Hot Press magazine, The Daily Mirror and on The Vincent Browne Show. The Stinging Fly magazine recently described Kevin as “likely the most widely read living poet in Ireland”. Kevin's most recent poetry collection Sex and Death at Merlin Park Hospital is published by Salmon Poetry in June 2019.
SS120 Gaelic Literature and Culture; From Cú Chulainn (Cuchulainn) to the Cultural Revival and beyond
Director: Liam Ó hAisibéil, MA, Ph.D.
Dr Liam Ó hAisibéil is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Irish in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Galway and graduated with a Ph.D. in Irish from the University of Galway in 2013. He has worked at higher education institutes in Ireland and in Canada and spent periods of research at universities in Ireland and Britain, most recently as a visiting researcher at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Dr Ó hAisibéil lectures on onomastics and medieval Irish literature on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and his research interests include placenames, surnames, and medieval Irish literature and culture. He is co-author, with Dr Kay Muhr, of the Oxford Dictionary of Family Names of Ireland, published by Oxford University Press in 2021.
SS122: Irish Traditional Music and Dance
Director: Méabh Ni Fhuartáin, M.A., Ph.D
Verena Commins is lecturer in Irish Studies at the Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway. Specialising in Irish music and dance studies, her research interests include exploring concepts of re-traditionalisation, surrogation and authenticity in the appraisal of Irish traditional music contexts in Ireland and beyond. A former Galway Connect Doctoral Research Fellow, she recently completed her PhD entitled Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy: Transmission, performance and commemoration of Irish traditional music, 1973-2012.
Malachy Egan, MA
Malachy has a B.A. in History and Geography from NUI Galway and also holds an M.Phil in Modern Irish History from Trinity College Dublin. Malachy has previously taught at the International Summer School, as well as teaching as part of the B.A. (Irish Studies) and the Irish Life and Culture programmes. He is currently completing his PhD in Irish Music Studies at the Centre for Irish Studies, N.U.I. Galway. His research interests include Irish music and identity; cultural revivalism; the social history of twentieth century Ireland; and social geography.
SS1153 Economic Policy in Ireland
Director: Brendan Kennelly
Brendan Kennelly is a lecturer in economics at NUI Galway. His main research interest is health economics, particularly mental health and dementia. He has published papers on these and other topics in journals such as Public Choice, Health Policy, and Social Science and Medicine. He is currently working on a number of projects in health including an evaluation of an Integrated Care Programme for people with dementia, an analysis of early intervention programmes for psychosis, and measuring preferences for mental health services and home care services for people with dementia. He has over 25 years of teaching experience at NUI Galway and at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. He has extensive experience in teaching microeconomics, public sector economics and health economics at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
