Siobhán Doyle
2020
| Twitter link | @thekickart |
| Bio | Siobhán is Curator of Glass, Ceramics and Asian Collections at the National Museum of Ireland (NMI). In 2022, Siobhán’s first book A History of the GAA in 100 Objects was published by Merrion Press. It has since been developed into a multimedia exhibition in NMI, Collins Barracks. Siobhán was awarded the Dean of the College of Arts & Tourism Award in 2016 and completed a PhD with the Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media in May 2020. Her doctoral research focused on how death is represented in museum exhibitions commemorating the 1916 Rising. Siobhán’s other research interests include sport history, memory studies and dark tourism. Siobhán has worked with international museum collections in the Royal Armouries, Imperial War Museum and Rijksmuseum. She was awarded the Early Career Research Award 2020 by the Digital Repository of Ireland for her research using ‘The Inspiring Ireland Project’ visual collections in the repository. Siobhán’s research has been published widely by Four Courts Press, various peer-reviewed journals, Routledge, Irish Times, History Ireland and RTÉ. Siobhán sits on advisory panels for Dublin City Council Culture Company and Tipperary County Council. Siobhán’s second book A History of Irish Sport in 100 Objects will be published by Merrion Press in 2026. |
| Areas of expertise | 1916 Rising, Decade of Centenaries, Commemorating conflict, exhibiting difficult subject matter in museum exhibitions, displaying death, material culture of death, cultural memory of the Irish Revolution, Commemorating the 1916 Rising and World War One in Northern Ireland, Irish museum sector, museum collections of the Irish Revolution, art history, Glasnevin Cemetery and Museum, burial customs, Bloody Sunday in Croke Park (1920), Michael Hogan, Michael Collins, GAA, sport history, material culture of sport, sport memorabilia, Irish ceramics, Albert Bender collection, Harry Clarke |
| Keywords | museums commemoration 1916 Easter Rising Decade of Centenaries Display culture Death provenance research national cultural institutions Gaelic Athletic Association memory studies Irish Revolution conflict national identity exhibitions collections representation cemeteries burial death customs Bloody Sunday Michael Collins sport history GAA sports tragedies martyrdom heroism Northern Ireland art history cultural memory |
| Nickname | Siobhán Doyle |
| Membership Type | Professional Historian |
| Education | PhD in Museums, Death and Commemoration, Technological University Dublin. BA (Hons) Visual and Critical Studies (now called BA Contemporary Visual Culture), Dublin Institute of Technology. |
| Employment | Curator of Glass, Ceramics and Asian Collections, National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, November 2022 – Present Curatorial Researcher, National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, April 2022-November 2022 Inventory Assistant, National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, November 2020-April 2022. Assistant Lecturer in Design History, Technological University Dublin, January 2022-June 2022 Tutor, Technological University Dublin, March 2018-June 2022 |
| Consultancy work | Culture Advisory Panel for the Dublin City Council Culture Company, November 2018 – November 2022 Advisory Panel for Tipperary County Council, June 2024 – Present |
| Teaching | Assistant Lecturer in Design History, January 2022 – June 2022 Occasional lecturer, Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media, Technological University Dublin, September 2020 – Present. Teaching Assistant, Everyday Objects (BA module), Technological University Dublin, January 2017 – May 2020 Teaching Assistant, Whose History? (BA module), Technological University Dublin, January 2017 – May 2020 |
| Committees & Associations | Culture and Advisory Heritage Panel, Dublin City Council Culture Company, November 2018 – Present. ACCESS Local Group, URBACT European group, November 2020 – Present. |
| Awards | Special Achievement Award, New Ross District GAA, 2023 Early Career Research Award, Digital Repository of Ireland, 2020. Dean of School of Creative Arts & Tourism PhD Scholarship Award, Dublin Institute of Technology, 2016. Best Original Thesis, Dublin Institute of Technology, 2014. |
| Books | A History of the GAA in 100 Objects. Merrion Press. 2022. |
| Book Chapters | “Contested Memories: Commemorating the First World War in the Ulster Museum, Belfast.” In Paul Cornish and Nicholas Saunders (eds) Curating the Great War. London: Routledge, 2022. “Funerary Traditions and Commemorative Practices in Glasnevin Cemetery and Museum.” In Grave Matters: Death and Dying in Dublin, 1500 to the Present, edited by Lisa-Marie Griffith and Ciarán Wallace, 150-158. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2016. |
| Peer Reviewed Journals | “Rethinking Commemorative Narratives through Exhibition: The Contact Relics of Michael Collins in the National Museum of Ireland.” Eire-Ireland: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Irish Studies, special issue ‘Politics and Narrative in Ireland’s Decade of Commemorations,’ (forthcoming June 2022). “The Bullet in the Brick: The Materiality of Conflict in Museum Objects.” Arms and Armour 16, no.1 (2019): 105-116. “James Connolly’s Bloodstained Vest: Mediating Death and Violence in Commemorative Exhibitions.” Remembrance and Solidarity Studies Journal 6 (2018): 45-59. |
| Other Journals | “Annie Burke’s Glasses: A New Lens from which to View Bloody Sunday, 1920,” History Ireland 28, no.6 (2020): 37. |
| Electronic Publications | “Negotiating the Challenges of Working with Visual Material: Archives, Cultural Institutions and Digital Collections,” Digital Repository of Ireland, October 2020, https://dri.ie/negotiating-challenges-working-visual-material-archives-cultural-institutions-and-digital. “Personalization of Modern Mourning in Museums and Public Spaces,” Social History Society Blog, September 2020, https://socialhistory.org.uk/shs_exchange/personalization-of-modern-mourning/. ‘The Stories Behind Four Famous GAA One-Liners,’ RTÉ Brainstorm, August 2021. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/0811/1240194-famous-gaa-one-liners-kieran-donaghy-john-mullane-babs-keating-ger-loughnane/. ‘5 Moments which Changed Irish Olympic History,’ RTÉ Brainstorm, July 2021. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/0722/1236585-irish-olympics-history-katie-taylor-wayne-mccullough-special-olympics-michelle-smith-de-bruin-peter-oconnor/. ‘Why Are So Many GAA Teams Sporting Commemorative Jerseys?,’ RTÉ Brainstorm, May 2021. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/0513/1221424-gaa-commemorative-jerseys-cork-tipperary-wexford-limerick/ ‘Why We Need to Forget About Ireland’s 2030 World Cup Bid,’ RTÉ Brainstorm, March 2021. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/0303/1200547-ireland-world-cup-2030-bid/ ‘How Should Ireland Commemorate COVID-19?,’ RTÉ Brainstorm, February 2021. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/0222/1198529-covid-19-commemoration/ ‘How Christy Ring became Hurling’s Reluctant Superstar,’ RTÉ Brainstorm, December 2020, https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/1214/1184286-christy-ring-cork-glen-rovers/. |
| Other | “The GAA must ensure Bloody Sunday is remembered appropriately,” Irish Times, September 16, 2020, p.10. |
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