Biography

Ciara Breathnach is Associate Professor in History at the University of Limerick. She has managed over 2 million Euro in competitive funding and has held nine visiting international fellowships. Breathnach is currently Visiting Professor at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge and held a Fulbright Scholar Award in 2022 at New York University AY2022/23.

She has published widely on Irish socio-economic, gender, cultural and health history. Her current monograph is Ordinary lives, death and social class: Dublin City Coroner's Court, 1876-1902 (Oxford University Press, 2022). It won the American Conference of Irish Studies, James S. Donnelly Sr. Prize for Books on History and Social Sciences in June 2023.

She is co-editor a forthcoming volume:

Ciara Breathnach and Ian Walsh (eds.), Inquest Reports of Dr Joseph E. Kenny, Dublin City Coroner, 1900 (Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, in press).

She is author of The Congested Districts Board of Ireland, 1891-1923, poverty and development in the West of Ireland (Dublin, 2005) and editor/co-editor of eight volumes/proceedings. Apart from chapters in edited volumes, she has published articles in high-ranking journals such as, Urban History, Annales de démographie historique, Medical History, The History Teacher, Health and History, Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, Nursing History Review, Social History of Medicine, Gender & History, Urban History, Medical Humanities, Cultural and Social History, Social History, Irish Historical Studies, Immigrants and Minorities, History of Family: an International Quarterly, the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Historical Research: the Bulletin of the Institute for Historical Research and New Hibernia Review.

She is currently a member of the Irish Manuscripts Commission, she is a former member of the National Archives Advisory Council (2017-2022), the Board of the National Library of Ireland (2015-2020) and the Heritage Council (2012-2016). Breathnach has held several research awards as Principal or Co-Investigator and was an Irish Research Council Laureate Awards 2017/32 recipient for a project entitled Death and Burial Data: Ireland 1864-1922 (2018-2023).


Research Interests

Dr Ciara Breathnach is Associate Professor in History at the University of Limerick. She has published widely on Irish socio-economic, gender, cultural and health history. Her current monograph is Ordinary lives, death and social class: Dublin City Coroner's Court, 1876-1902 (Oxford University Press, 2022).

She has held the following Awards and Fellowships:
2022 Fulbright Scholar, New York University.
2021 Irish Research Council, Research Ally Award.
2019 Excellence in Teaching Award, Centre for Teaching and Learning, UL, Faculty of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences winner.
2019 Visiting Research Leaders Fellowship, University of Wollongong
2017 Visiting Fellowship, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
2016 CRF/RSE European Visiting Research Fellowships, Royal Society of Edinburgh, with Prof Oonagh Walsh at Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland, UK.
2013-2014 Foundation for Women in Medicine Fellow, Center for the History of Medicine, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
2013-2014 Faculty Fellow, Faculty of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Limerick.
2012-2013 Visiting Fellow, Institute of Historical Research, London.
2012 (September) Visiting Faculty, New York University.
2012-2013 Flaherty Visiting Fellow, University of Massachusetts, Boston.


Professional Activities

Award

  • 2014 - Harvard University, Foundation for Women in Medicine Fellow, Center for the History of Medicine,
  • 2013 - Flaherty Visiting Fellow
  • 2013 - IRC, Main Principal Investigator
  • 2012 - Visiting Fellow
  • 2012 - Visiting Faculty
  • 2010 - Principal Investigator
  • 2005 - Royal Irish Academy, British- Irish Exchange scheme
  • 2004 - Royal Irish Academy, British- Irish Exchange Scheme

Committee

  • 2012 Heritage Council of Ireland,
  • 2007 Society for the Study of Nineteenth Century Ireland,
  • 2005 Committee member of the National Library of Ireland on Genealogy and Heraldry.,

Association

  • 2010 President, Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland
  • 2007 Secretary, Society for the Study of Nineteenth Century Ireland

Education

  • 2003 UCC - PhD

Language

  • Gaeilge

Publications

Peer Reviewed Journals

2022

Introduction

Breathnach C.;Buckley S.A. (2022) Introduction. Gender And History: Ireland, 1852-1922 :1-7

Books

Book Chapters

2013

‘Obituaries in provincial Irish newspapers, 1830-1900'

Breathnach, C, Butler, D (2013) ‘Obituaries in provincial Irish newspapers, 1830-1900'. Dublin : Irish Academic Press James Kelly and Marian Lyons (eds), Death and Dying in Ireland, Britain, and Europe: Historical Perspectives (Irish Academic Press, Dublin and Portland, 2013)

2007

introduction

Breathnach, C (2007) introduction. : Irish Academic Press Framing the West, images of rural Ireland, 1891-1920 :xiii-xxi

Edited Books

Other Journals

Conference Publications

2012

Irish Historical Studies

Breathnach C.;Chambers L.;McElligott A. (2012) Irish Historical Studies. Irish Historical Studies :1-4

Conference Contributions

Published Reports

This author has not written any publications of this type yet.

Editorials

2012

Introduction

Breathnach, C,Chambers, L,McElligott, A (2012) Introduction. Irish Historical Studies :1-4

Book Reviews

Other Publications

2012

Introduction

Breathnach, C,Chambers, L,McElligott, A (2012) Introduction. Irish Historical Studies :1-4