Dr Niamh Gallagher

Niamh Gallagher is author of Ireland and the Great War: A Social and Political History (London: Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2019) which won the Royal Historical Society's 2020 Whitfield Prize, and co-editor of The Political Thought of the Irish Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022).

She lectures in the history of modern Britain and Ireland and convenes a range of courses across the undergraduate and postgraduate year groups. She has written on the cultural and social history of the First World War and is currently working on the history of Ireland and end of the British Empire.

Niamh has appeared frequently in the media (see below). She co-convenes The Future of the Island of Ireland series which was awarded an Arts and Humanities Impact Fund grant to develop the project. In 2021, she was a member of the Independent Historical Advisory Panel for Northern Ireland.

Niamh is currently the recipient of a lectureship in modern Irish history generously funded by the Irish Government's Department of Foreign Affairs' Peace and Reconciliation Fund.

Niamh is available for consultancy.

University Associate Professor in Modern British and Irish History

Niamh Gallagher comes from Co. Armagh in Northern Ireland. She completed her first degree at UCL and postgraduate studies at Cambridge. Since joining the Fellowship in 2018, Niamh has acted at different times as Director of Studies for History, Admissions lead in History and the joint schools, supervisor of all year groups including third-year and master-level dissertations, Postgraduate Tutor for Finance, and Chair of the Amalgamated Clubs. She co-convenes The Future of the Island of Ireland series through the College, which has grown from strength strength since a major event on the Good Friday Agreement in 2019.

Public policy and related work

- Invited witness on subject of Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, as well as Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, for House of Lords Sub-Committee on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, 12 October 2022. Watch the session here or read the transcript here.

- 'The misuse of the Good Friday Agreement in Ministerial protests over the Protocol', article published as part of History and Policy, 06 July 2022, https://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/the-misuse-of-the…

- Member of the Northern Ireland Independent Centenary Historical Advisory Panel 2020-2021 appointed by UK government to advise on marking centenary of Northern Ireland. Worked closely with the Nerve Centre, Derry, to assist historical aspects of the Creative Centenaries website 

- Invited contributor to the President of Ireland's (Michael D. Higgins) Machnamh 100 public seminar series on the theme of Empire: instincts, interests, power and resistance broadcast on RTE (25 Feb 2021)

- One of four panellists invited by the Irish Embassy in London to speak about the Government of Ireland Act (1920). Chaired by Fergal Keane (Dec 2020)

- Chaired Mether Initiative panel discussion with former secretaries of state for Northern Ireland, John Reid and Paul Murphy, and the shadow deputy leader of the House of Lords, Angela Smith, to discuss the challenges of delivering the Good Friday Agreement (Nov 2019)

Media, press and public engagement

- Consulted by Financial Times  regarding 'where next for Northern Ireland?' Published 31 October 2022 https://www.ft.com/content/8abfe3f2-d07c-41d2-9077-dbc4c951f210

- Talking head on Michael Portillo's RTE-Midas Production on the Irish civil war: the third and final documentary in 'The Enemy Files' series (broadcast on RTE, early 2023)

- Talking head on BBC's 'Sunday' with William Crawley on subject of bonfires in N. Ireland (broadcast 21 August 2022)

- Consulted by Financial Times (August, 2022) and Irish News (July 2022) to speak about 'The misuse of the Good Friday Agreement in ministerial protests over the Protocol', resulting in leading articles and front-page news.

- Co-founder of The Mether Initiative at St Catharine's College with Lord Des Browne of Ladyton. Now Cambridge Future of the Island of Ireland series.

- Talking head on Tyrone Productions documentary screened by BBC, 'Steps of Freedom: The story of Irish Dance'

- Talking head on BBC's 'The Long View' with Jonathan Freedland on subject of 'This Union' (broadcast 13 July 2021)

- Talking head on Michael Portillo's RTE-Midas Production, 'Partition, 1921', the second documentary in 'The Enemy Files' series (broadcast on RTE, June, 2021)

- Talking head on LRB podcast with Thomas Jones 'On the Irish Border' (June, 2021)

- Talking head on Talking Politics podcast with Prof. Richard Bourke on 'Northern Ireland: Past, Present, Future', (March, 2021)

- Invited speaker at Her Majesty's Treasury History Network as part of their Anniversaries Series to deliver lecture entitled 'Houses divided: the 1911 Parliament Act'  (March, 2021).

- Discussant on Dan Snow's History Hit podcast to discuss the Partition of Ireland (Jan 2021)

- Talking head on TV documentary, 'The Hunger', produced by Tyrone Productions in association with RTE, University College Cork and The Atlas Of The Great Irish Famine (Nov-Dec 2020).

- Discussant on the Cambridge-led podcast, 'Talking Politics', with David Runciman to discuss Sinn Fein and the Irish general election (Dec 2020) 

- Discussant on Radio 4 show 'In Our Time' hosted by Melvyn Bragg on subject of 'The Great Irish Famine' (April 2019) alongside Cormac O'Grada and Enda Delaney 

Journal articles

- N. Gallagher, 'Ireland and the First World War: Myth, Memory and History', British Journal of Military History (forthcoming, 2023).

- N. Gallagher, 'That Awkward Region: Writing and Advising on the History of Northern Ireland', Political Quarterly, vol. 94, no. 2., (2023), 237-243.

Monographs, edited collections and invited chapters

- N. Gallagher ‘Churchill, the ‘Irish Question’ and the Irish’ in Allen Packwood (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Winston Churchill, Cambridge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023), pp. 112-136.

- R. Bourke and N. Gallagher (eds), The Political Thought of the Irish Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022).

- N. Gallagher, 'Reordering the world in the aftermath of the First World War' in  Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid, Marie Coleman, Paul Bew (eds.) Northern Ireland 1921–2021: Centenary Historical Perspectives (Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2022).

- N. Gallagher, 'Breaking down binaries: empire, the First World War and partition' in President of Ireland's Machnamh 100: Empire (President's Office, 2021).

Recent book reviews

- 'To the benefit of no one: Henry Wilson's assassination', review of Ronan McGreevy's 'Great Hatred', London Review of Books, August 2022.

- James Doherty, 'Irish Liberty, British Democracy: The third Home Rule crisis, 1909–14' (Cork University Press, 2019) and Conor Morrissey, Protestant nationalists in Ireland, 1900–1923 (Cambridge University Press, 2019), Journal of Modern History, vol. 94, no. 4 (2022), pp. 957-60.

- 'Back to the Border', review of Charles Townshend's 'The Partition: Ireland Divided, 1885-1925' (London, 2021), London Review of Books, published June 2021.

- Conor Morrissey, 'Protestant nationalists in Ireland, 1900-1923' (Cambridge, 2019), Irish Historical Studies, May 2021.

(2020) Winner of the Royal Historical Society's Whitfield Prize; (2013) St Catharine Prize for Distinction in Research, St Catharine’s College, Cambridge; (2011) Members’ History Prize and Fund, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge

2009

2018