UCD School of History & Archives

General Research Interests:

Corporate records management; recordkeeping and its role in accountability; the impact of born-digital on personal and corporate recordkeeping; archival theory, in particular archival appraisal and the relationship between history and archives; the role of the office of the Chief Secretary of Ireland in the early nineteenth century; and Presbyterian radicalism in the north of Ireland in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Current research Interests:

I am currently interested in several strands of research, focusing on the role of, and attitudes to, recordkeeping and records management within Irish society and Irish governance. This includes records management within the public sector, and government policy on recordkeeping in the digital era, considering the implications for democratic accountability, and ultimately, the archival records of the future. I am also hoping to explore more broadly, the extent to which Ireland is keeping pace with the international community in terms of the recognition of the centrality of recordkeeping to transparency and public accountability, as well as to the collective memory of the nation.

Related to this, the research also hopes to include a consideration of the implications of the digital era for personal recordkeeping here in Ireland, and likewise, the consequences for archives and archival research in the longer term.

Lastly, I am also working on ongoing research into the involvement of Presbyterian clergy and laity in the tenant right movement of the late 1840s and early 1850s, and the 1852 Irish general election, including the relationship between the Marquis of Londonderry and Presbyterians in north Down during this period.