Margaret MacCurtain Scholarship Application Form 25/26: MMC Application Form 25/26
Margaret MacCurtain Scholarship
Postgraduate Programmes
- Certificate in Archives & Certificate in Records Management
- Graduate Diploma in History
- MA in Archives & Records Management
- MA in European History (UNICA)
- MA Medieval Studies
- MA in Global History
- MA in the History of Welfare and Medicine
- MA in International War Studies
- MA in Public History
- MA in Irish History
- Archivistics
- MA Archivistics Progression Programme
- Margaret MacCurtain Scholarship
- Colonel Michael Hefferon Memorial Scholarship
The Margaret MacCurtain Scholarship
The Margaret MacCurtain Scholarship in Women's History is a graduate Scholarship in History, University College Dublin. The Scholarship is funded by Professor Maureen Murphy to support graduate work in women’s history in UCD. The Scholarship consists of a medal and monetary prize of €3,000.
The Scholarship is open to both Masters and Doctoral Students registered to graduate programmes in History in UCD.
Applications will open in early 2026.
Margaret MacCurtain Terms and Conditions 25/26: MMC Terms and Conditions
The Scholarship is open to both EU and non-EU students. Candidates will have to complete the application procedure for entry into a relevant graduate programme in order to be considered. The proposed recipient of the Scholarship will be informed of their success by the first week of the academic year in which it is being held.
A first-class graduate from University College Cork, Margaret MacCurtain entered the Dominican Order in 1950. She later completed her masters studies in Early Modern Irish History at University College Dublin. Awarded her doctorate in history in 1963, she started her career as a Lecturer in History at UCD in 1964 where she taught for 30 years.
Dr. MacCurtain’s contributions to academic scholarship and to Irish life were multifaceted. She was a pioneering figure in promoting women’s history and the history of education, and remained a steadfast historian of early modern Ireland. Her early publications, including Tudor and Stuart Ireland (1972), The Birth of Modern Ireland (1969) with Mark Tierney, and Women in Irish Society: the Historical Dimension (1978), a collection of essays she co-edited with Donnchadh Ó Corráin, inspired generations of historians of early modern Ireland, and of women’s history. She published her final monograph, Ambassador Extraordinaire: Daniel O'Daly, 1595-1662, in 2017.
She chaired the National Archives Advisory Council, 1997-2002, and held the prestigious Burns Chair of Irish Studies in Boston College. In 1997, Women in Irish History: Essays in Honour of Margaret MacCurtain was published. In acknowledgment of her contribution to the field, Dr. MacCurtain's great friend and fellow historian Professor Maureen Murphy funds the Margaret MacCurtain Scholarship in Women’s History, awarded at UCD School of History each academic year.
Throughout her life, Dr. MacCurtain sought to advance social justice; she campaigned against corporal punishment in schools, domestic violence, and apartheid in South Africa, and advocated for children with special educational needs and the right to remarry after a civil divorce or annulment (she was patron of that campaign).