³Ô¹Ïtv

Dr Niall Whelehan

Senior Lecturer

History

Contact

Personal statement

My research and teaching focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and themes of migration, political violence, activism, nationalism and colonialism, mainly relating to Ireland and the Irish diaspora. I completed my doctorate at the European University Institute, Florence. Before coming to ³Ô¹Ïtv, I worked at Bielefeld University, Germany, the University of Glaway and the University of Edinburgh. I am presently the Head of the History Subject Area at ³Ô¹Ïtv.

My recent book Changing Land: Diaspora Activism and the Irish Land War (NYU Press, 2021) is based on research supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Intra-European Fellowship and examines radical networks in Ireland and Irish migrant communities in Scotland, England, the United States and Argentina. My first book, The Dynamiters: Irish nationalism and political violence in the wider world, 1867-1900, appeared with Cambridge University Press in 2012.

My present project is a book length study of Irish migration to Argentina and the south Atlantic world more widely in the long nineteenth centiry, and in particular of John O'Dwyer Creaghe, an Irish emigrant who became a leading figure in the Argentine anarchist movement. Alongside this, I am working on a collabortive project on demography and excess mortality in nineteenth century Ireland.

I am part of the Modern Irish History Group at ³Ô¹Ïtv. I teach classes on the history of the Irish diaspora, the global history of terrorism, Irish nationalism and radicalism, and Ireland and colonialism, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Along with teaching and research, I’m committed to public history. I am presently working on a collaborative project between historians and composers and songwriters on the interpretation of primary historical sources through music. The project is called 'Bring Your Own Hammer' and the of original compositions was released in March 2024.

I have also contributed pieces to the Irish Times and RTE Brainstorm. I am interested in the interpretation of history through music and film. For a number of years I organised the series 'Screening Irish History', which has run at the Glasgow Film Theatre, the CCA Glasgow and Edinburgh’s Filmhouse.

Ìý

Links:ÌýÌý

/humanities/departmentofhumanities/history/modernirishhistory/

Ìý

Back to staff profile

Publications

34 (2026)
America in Ireland Culture and Society, 1841–1925 (2025) (2025)
, McMahon Richard
A Tract for Our Times A Retrospective on Joe Lee’s Ireland 1912–1985 (2024) (2024)
McLaughlin Eoin,
(2024)
(2022)
30 (2022)

Back to staff profile

Teaching

I teach undergraduate and postgraduate modules on the history of Ireland and Irish migration, and the history of political violence and terrorism.

Ìý

I welcome applications from potential PhD students who wish to work on areas of:

  • modern Ireland and the Irish diaspora
  • migration
  • terrorism and political violence
  • Ireland and empire
  • Cinema and Irish history
Back to staff profile

Professional Activities

Contributor
30/5/2025
Contributor
29/5/2025
Contributor
20/3/2025

Projects

Lively, Anna (Principal Investigator) Whelehan, Niall (Academic)
What role did Irish women play in the global spread of anti-communism between 1919 and 1939? This project investigates the diversity of Irish women’s anti-communist activism, including through connections with right-wing groups in the Irish diaspora in Britain, the US and Australia. It focuses on a critical period in the development of global anti-communism, spanning from the Irish War of Independence and the first US Red Scare to the Spanish Civil War. Combining transnational history with gender studies’ approaches, this project analyses a neglected form of Irish women’s political participation and examines the politics of gender on the right.
01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2027
Whelehan, Niall (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2023 - 30-Jan-2025
Whelehan, Niall (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2023 - 28-Jan-2025
Whelehan, Niall (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2019 - 30-Jan-2022

Back to staff profile

Contact

Dr Niall Whelehan
Senior Lecturer
History

Email: niall.whelehan@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 444 8368