Raised in London of parents from Leitrim and Galway, who emigrated with the post-WW2 migrant wave from the west of Ireland. Socialized in an environment very much centred on Irish diaspora and culture. Learnt Irish traditional music from age 9 and became part of London-Irish music scene. Followed my father into construction and qualified as a Chartered Quantity Surveyor. Spent 30 years in industry, latterly as a Chartered Surveyor specialising in Construction Law. Relocated from London to my father’s ‘home place’ near Carrick-on-Shannon in 2005. After Celtic Tiger collapse in 2009, decided to embark upon academic study at NUI Maynooth [now Maynooth University] with a view to specialising in history.
Gained 1st in BA(Joint Hons) English/History at Maynooth University and, after competitive assessment process, was awarded a John and Pat Hume Scholarship by the university in September 2014 to undertake a 4-year postgraduate PhD programme researching Irish social and diaspora history with particular reference to Irish construction workers in post-war London. Awarded an Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship 2016-2018 and completed PhD in 2021. Now practice as a independent historical researcher/writer /consultant specializing in local/migrant histories and genealogies.
Areas of expertise
London-Irish history, Construction history, 20th-century Irish migration, cultural and socio-economic history. Microhistories of Roscommon/Leitrim regions. Microhistories of traditional Irish music, song and folklore.
Michael Mulvey, ‘ ‘Digging for Gold’: Irish Immigrant Entrepreneurs in the Postwar Reconstruction of London’, in James W P Campbell, Nina Baker, Amey Boyington, Michael Driver, Michael Heaton, Yiting Pan, Henrik Schoenefeldt, Michael Tutton, and David Yeomans (eds.), Building Histories: The Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference of the Construction History Society, (Cambridge, 2018), pp.415-24.
Michael Mulvey, ‘ ‘‘Once Hard Men Were Heroes”: Masculinity, Cultural Heroism and Performative Irishness in the Post-war British Construction Industry’, in James W P Campbell, Nina Baker, Amey Boyington, Michael Driver, Michael Heaton, Yiting Pan, Henrik Schoenefeldt, Michael Tutton, and David Yeomans, (eds.), Studies in the History of Services and Construction: The Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Conference of the Construction History Society, (Cambridge, 2018), pp.443-50.
Peer Reviewed Journals
Mulvey, Michael (2018) ‘I’ve Won a Hero’s Name’: Stereotyping the Post – war Irish Builders and Mythologizing the Mundane. NPPSH Reflections, 2. pp. 91-102. ISSN 2565-6031
Other Journals
Other
7-8th October, 2016 – University College Cork, Oral History Network of Ireland People and Place Conference – “The Elephant in the Room’: Oral History, Cultural Myth and Self-identity in the Migrant Irish Builders of Post‐war London.
7-9th April, 2017 – Queen’s College, Cambridge – Society of Construction Law, Fourth Annual Construction History Society Conference 2017 and Third International Colloquium – ‘Digging for Gold’: Irish Immigrant Entrepreneurs in the Postwar Reconstruction of London.
29th April, 2017 – Leitrim County Library, Ballinamore – Leitrim Fleadh Cheoil, 1-hour multimedia presentation entitled “The North Connacht Legacy Cultural and Music Traditions in London”.
23-24th June, 2017, University College, Galway – Oral History Network of Ireland Work and Leisure Conference – “Paddy does not die in vain”: Irish Builders in Post-war London – Health, Safety and Welfare at Work, Hegemonic Masculinity & Reckless Roguery.
15th-18th August, 2017 – 1st Global Irish Diaspora Congress 2017, University College Dublin – “Paddy in the Smoke: Irish builders and entrepreneurs and the Post-War reconstruction of London”
19th-20th October, 2017 – Maynooth University – New Perspectives: Postgraduate Symposium on the Humanities (NPPSH) – “I’ve Won a Hero’s Name”: Stereotyping the Post-war Irish Builders and Mythologizing the Mundane.
7-9th April, 2018 – Queen’s College, Cambridge – Society of Construction Law, Fifth Annual Construction History Society Conference 2017 and Fourth International Colloquium – ‘Once Hard Men Were Heroes’: Masculinity, Cultural Heroism and Performative Irishness in the Post-war British Construction Industry.
28 – 29th June 2018 – Queen’s University Belfast – Joint Conference of the Oral History Society and Oral History Network of Ireland, ‘Dangerous Oral Histories: Risks, Responsibilities and Rewards’ – “Great Money But Dangerous Work”: Irish Tunnel‐Tigers in 20th Century Britain – Oral Histories of Risk, Reward and Reckless Endangerment.
