Capitalism by Sven Beckert review – an extraordinary history of the economic system that controls our lives

#OpenAccess highlight: 'Britishness, Irishness, and class: Catholic identities in Anglo-Australia 1880-1916', by Scott Denis McCarthy is available through the following link: @universitypress.cambridge.org

It's a few weeks away - January 23rd - but it would be great to see a good turnout for this Dublin discussion of Averill Earls' important new book on male same-sex desire in 20th c. Ireland!

Last call | There’s still time to submit proposals for the 40th anniversary issue of Continuity and Change, exploring past developments and future directions in social & economic history. Deadline 20 Dec 2025. More on the blog👇 @echistsoc.bsky.social @socialhistsoc.bsky.social @royalhistsoc.org

#CfP for next year’s SHS conference! Drop me a line if you have any Q about the ‘Lifecycles, Families, and Communities’ strand 📣

If you missed Patrick Walsh's talk yesterday on 'A colonial sinew of power? Rethinking the 18th-century Irish state', a recording is available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=haJr...

My review of Salman Rushdie’s new collection of short stories, THE ELEVENTH HOUR, is in today’s Irish Times www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Congrats to our colleague Olwen Purdue on her election as president of the International Federation for Public History

Congratulations to Holly Shipton on passing her History PhD viva this week. Her thesis explores landscape, environment, and agricultural decision-making in medieval Ireland, focusing on the manors of Roger Bigod (c.1279–90). With examiners Prof Brendan Smith (Bristol, Right) & Dr Simon Egan (Left).

Fresh off the press, The Bloomsbury Handbook of Apocalypticism and Millennialism edited with Andrew Crome. Filled with brilliant chapters by the world's critical experts! An exploration of how societies make sense of their Ends and their hoped for new beginnings www.bloomsbury.com/uk/bloomsbur...

This was the first ever Irish history conference I presented at and you couldn't find a nicer and friendlier bunch. Great to see colleagues will be bringing it to Maynooth.

Our friends at @niscifest.bsky.social have been working on a new project and have now launched their website for 'Maps and Memories'. The project marks 200 years since the OS first mapping survey on Divis. Watch this space for exciting collaborations in 2026 nisciencefestival.com/programme/ma...

My latest contribution about the conflict in northern #Mozambique AfricanJihad AfroLuso #Africa #jihad www.hoover.org/research/rel...

Do you research #marriage, #divorce, or anything in between?! Submit an abstract for the @divorcehistory.bsky.social end of project conference. The keynote speaker is Lady Hale & speaker bursaries are available - it will be a fab day, join us! #legalhistory www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...

⚠️ Today is the deadline to share your proposals for BAAS 2026 ⚠️ Don't miss your opportunity to join us in Glasgow to present your research & discover the most exciting conversations in American Studies.

Honoured to have been elected President of the WHAI. Impressive shoes to fill following Diane Urquhart. Wonderful association to represent.

On Thursday 12 Feb. we will be sponsoring a conference on THE ULSTER PLANTATION, linked to the 'People of Plantation Ulster' database project (QUB/Maynooth). This is a free event open to all, held at PRONI (11-4). Registration and programme is at: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/conference...

Congrats to Dr Robyn Atcheson and Dr Susie Deedigan, who have both been elected Associate Fellows of the Royal Historical Society royalhistsoc.org/society-elec...

It was great to be at the launch by @miriamocal.bsky.social of Childhood and the Irish: A Miscellany edited by @salvadorryan.bsky.social last week at @ria.ie! Thinking back on the childhoods of two of the crucial Carmelite figures within my PhD was fascinating and so rewarding.

Congratulations to Dr Sean Garland, who graduated yesterday with a History PhD on ‘Women in the Irish Citizen Army’, supervised by Prof Marie Coleman

MA Public History students graduating yesterday, with Prof @olwenpurdue.bsky.social

We are delighted to announce that we'll be hosting the SSNCI conference in Maynooth next June. Call for papers attached. Please spread far and wide!

On Friday 16 January we will be hosting a one-day conference on LABOUR POLITICS IN WEST BELFAST, 1918-83. Free event - all welcome (in-person and online). www.ticketsource.co.uk/institute-of...

#OpenAccess research article, 'Encountering modern Irish history: historiography, archives and imagination in the twenty-first century' by Lindsey Earner-Byrne, Roisín Higgins and Carole Holohan is available through the following link! @universitypress.cambridge.org @earner.bsky.social

#OpenAccess Research article, 'Between sickness and sin: models of male homosexuality in Northern Ireland c.1960-1990', by Charlie Lynch is available through the following link: @universitypress.cambridge.org

#OpenAccess Research article, 'Gendered hierarchies and marked bodies: narratives of household violence in early modern Ireland' by Dianne Hall is available through the following link! @universitypress.cambridge.org

What a great way to end this semester’s @qubhistory.bsky.social seminar series tomorrow with @niamhcullen.bsky.social, chaired by @elainefarrell.bsky.social! Drinks and snacks provided as usual. For more information and to sign up to attend online see: www.eventbrite.com/e/qub-histor...

I had a lot of fun at the Wolfson History Prize ceremony last night, fuelled by a bottomless supply of free champagne. Congratulations to Hannah Durkin for a well deserved win!

I’ve seen some oddities on the Belfast antique auction sites — spooky porcelain dolls, eyebrow raising WW2 memorabilia, etc — but this is by far the most inexplicable:

Many thanks to Elizabeth Malcolm for her kind review of William Sharman Crawford in IHS www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The Anglo-Celt (Cavan) has been added to the BNA for 1846-1849, 1858, 1864-1870 blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2025/12/02/n...

We are delighted this afternoon to announced the CFP for the 36th annual WHAI conference 2026. The conference will be held at Mary I Limerick on 29 & 30 May 2026. Closing dates for submissions on the theme of 'Gain' is 31 Jan. 2026. sites.google.com/view/whai202...

Economic and Social History Society of Ireland, 52nd Annual Conference. DCU St Patrick’s Campus, Friday 5th and Saturday 6th December 2025.

For anyone who wants to see/hear my presentation from yesterday at @qubhistory.bsky.social on Opposition to Margaret Thatcher's Controversial Poll Tax from Civic Society, I have now made a very similar podcast of it. See below link 👇. Please share with anyone who might be interested.

Feeling incredibly proud of Dr @mpalawrence.bsky.social, who has passed his PhD viva with no corrections! An outstanding thesis on queer Irish culture and migration c. 1880 to 1960. Examined by Matt Cook and Fearghal McGarry!

Delighted that Steve will be coming to QUB to speak about his new book next year

'Clandeboye Conversations' on 21 February, organised by @publichistoryqub.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/clandeboye...

My friend and colleague getting the recognition he deserves for his brilliant book. Good luck Kieran!

In his outstanding 2025 Wiles Lectures at QUB, Sven Beckert addressed many of the themes and episodes which are now explored at length in his new book 'Capitalism: a global history' - it's reviewed here by Marcus Rediker in the NYT: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/b...

Very happy to be included on this shortlist for my biography-in-progress on Darina Silone, an Irishwoman in the Italian antifascist resistance thebiographersclub.com/the-biograph... @qubhistory.bsky.social

This November the @dib.ie publishes 29 biographical entries: 28 new entries alongside an extensive revision of an existing entry. This eclectic range of noteworthy lives, drawn from across the spectrum of Irish society can be viewed here: www.dib.ie/news/broadca...

Please do spread the word.

Registration for this conference closes today - there are a few places left!

In a change to the advertised schedule this week‘s @qubhistory.bsky.social seminar will be given by QUB’s very own @pfarrelly2025.bsky.social. Snacks & drinks will be provided as usual. For more information & to sign up to attend online, see the Eventbrite below: www.eventbrite.com/e/qub-histor...

Our last seminar for this year, on 15 Dec. will be Patrick Walsh (TCD) speaking on 'A colonial sinew of power? Rethinking the 18th-century Irish state' (joint event with CECS). All welcome in-person and online. www.ticketsource.co.uk/institute-of...

If you missed Catriona Kennedy's talk yesterday on 'Women, politics, and the Irish public sphere in the age of revolution', a recording is now available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-dV...