The University of Limerick recently hosted a conference exploring ‘Deviance in Modern Irish History’. Speakers included Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, UCD and Professor Maria Luddy, University of Warwick. Over 60 leading historians and academics attended the event which covered topics including juvenile offenders, female criminality and the medicine of deviance.

Dr Conor Reidy, Department of History, UL and convener said; “For the first time a group of scholars working on a broad range of themes specifically within the field of Irish deviance history have come together. This conference is the first to encompass such a broad range of research ideas under the umbrella of deviant behaviour as a whole. We see this as the beginning of what a new research network that will examine 'the other' or 'the outsider' in Irish history.”

The conference was organised by the Department of History, UL and funded under the IRCHSS New Ideas scheme. Further information can be found at www.history.ul.ie/deviance