I am a native of Milltown, Co. Kerry and I am the author of several books on the history and politics of my native county, including, most recently No Middle Path: The Civil War in Kerry (Merrion Press, 2022). I am the author of Heirs to the Kingdom: Kerry’s Political Dynasties (O’Brien Press, 2011) and co-author of A Century of Politics in the Kingdom: A County Kerry Compendium (Merrion Press, 2018). I was co-editor of a history of Kerry and the Easter Rising in 2016 with Bridget McAuliffe and Dr Mary McAuliffe. I currently work as Media, Communications and Customer Relations Officer with Kerry County Council. I recently completed a PhD at UCD researching electioneering and politics in Kerry in the decade after the Civil War under the supervision of Professor Diarmaid Ferriter. My research was supported by the Irish Research Council.
Areas of expertise
Political history of County Kerry; the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the revolutionary period in County Kerry; elections and electioneering; political parties, party organisation and party competition.
‘“The only hope was to work the Treaty”: Local newspaper coverage of the 1923 general election in County Kerry’ in Elaine Callinan, Mel Farrell and Thomas Tormey, Vying for Victory: the 1923 General Election in the Irish Free State (UCD Press, 2023)
‘Party organisation, political engagement and electioneering in Kerry, 1927 – 1966′ in Kerry: History and Society (ed. Maurice Bric, Geography Publications. 2020)
Peer Reviewed Journals
“‘We are almost on the lip of the volcano’: The Blueshirts in County Kerry, 1933-35,” in Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society, Series 2, Vol. 22 (2022): 53-78.
Reviews
“Was the assassination of Sir Henry Wilson the ‘murder that triggered the Irish Civil War’?”: Review of Great Hatred: The Assassination of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson MP by Ronan McGreevy in History Today, (Vol. 72, Issue 9, September 2022): Assassin’s Creed | History Today
Other
Contributor to Tráma Teaghlaigh, TG4, 2023
Contributor to RTE Nationwide programmes on the Civil War and War of Independence
