Róisín Healy

Dr. Healy began her studies at UCD, where she received a B.A. in History and German and a M.A. in German. Inspired by the experience of being in Germany when the Berlin Wall came down, she decided to pursue postgraduate study at the newly established Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University. She received her M.A. in German and European Studies in 1994 and Ph.D. in History from Georgetown in 1999. Appointed Lecturer in History at NUI Galway (now University of Galway) in 1997, she is now Senior Lecturer.She has published widely on the history of Imperial Germany, Irish nationalism and intra-European colonialism, with particular reference to Ireland and Prussian Poland. Over the course of her career, her work has been recognised by awards from the German Academic Exchange Service, the Fulbright Commission, the Irish Research Council and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In May 2023, she was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy.Róisíns first monograph examined the role of Catholic-Protestant tensions in Imperial Germany through the lens of anti-Jesuitism. This work and current research on Marian apparitions aligns with the Department of HIstorys Research Strength in Religion and Society. More recently, she has focused on transnational and comparative links between Ireland and Poland, finding a home in the Departments Research Strength in Ireland in Global Context. Her work emphasises the many similarities between Ireland under British rule and other subject nations in Europe as well as the vibrant links between self-styled oppressed nations across Europe. Her second monograph, published in 2017, dealt with Irish nationalists perception of Poland as a sister in bondage. This work on nationalism fits with the Activism and Justice strand of the Departments research. Currently, she is exploring the extent to which British rule in Ireland mirrored that of Prussian rule in Poland in the long nineteenth century. Related to this research are her co-edited volumes examining the notion of colonialism within Europe, parallels between small nations and overseas colonies in World War I, and the global impact of the Easter Rising.Róisín relishes the opportunity to visit places related to her historical interest. By now, her work has taken her to most of the major cities of Germany and Poland, with the odd foray further east and west. She has been a visiting scholar at the Universities of Potsdam and Leipzig and the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University. She has also organised several international conferences at NUI Galway, where she is co-director, along with Prof. Enrico Dal Lago, of the Centre for the Investigation of Transnational Encounters at the Moore Institute. She is an active member of the German History Society, the Humboldt Association of Ireland, and the Irish Association for Russian, Central and East European Studies. In addition to writing reviews for numerous journals, she has served as peer reviewer for, among others, English Historical Review, European History Quarterly, Europe-Asia Studies , German History , Journal of Jesuit Studies , Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism and publishers Cambridge U.P., Oxford U.P., Brill, Palgrave and Routledge.

Modern German history, modern Polish history, Irish contacts and comparisons with continental Europe from 1750 to 2000, nationalism and colonial relationships in central Europe, religion and church-state relations in central Europe, small states, memory studies, history of suicide.

I teach modules on modern German and European history. These include Europe, 1789-1918, Central Europe 1867-1918, Nazi Germany, Coming to Terms with the Nazi Past. At postgraduate level I teach modules on historical methodologies and Irish contacts with Europe.