Patrick Duffy awarded NUI Mansion House Prize in Irish History
The School of History congratulates Patrick Duffy (BA 2020) for winning the NUI Mansion House Prize in Irish History.
‘Studying Irish history at UCD’, Patrick writes, ‘has been a thoroughly enjoyable, fulfilling and rewarding experience. During my three years, I have explored events ranging from the Nine Years War at the end of the sixteenth century to the Northern Ireland Troubles at the end of the twentieth. It has encouraged me to explore events with which I was not familiar and question my assumptions and myths about our past. Prior to studying at UCD, for example, I had never have heard of the 1641 Rebellion and it was after exploring this fascinating event that I have viewed both violence and ethnic relations during the early modern period in a new light. UCD’s resources and location makes it a truly appropriate place to study Irish history. During my final year, I took advantage of the personal papers in the UCD Archives of some of the individuals who shaped Irish history. I consulted the papers of Éamon de Valera and Eóin Mac Néill, when investigating the Irish Civil War and the Boundary Commission respectively. UCD’s proximity to other important institutions such as the National Archives and National Library meant that the documents that make Irish history were never more than a short bus ride away. The opportunities, therefore, to engage in original primary source research has perhaps been the most fulfilling aspect of studying Irish history at UCD.’
Following graduation, Patrick is studying for a Master of Studies in Modern British History at Lincoln College, Oxford. He is hoping to explore Protestants in South Ulster and politics in the mid-nineteenth century. He hopes to complete a doctorate in some aspect of the history of Ulster in the future.