Mary E. Daly MRIA, historian

Professor Daly’s research focus on social and economic history in Ireland since the famine seeks to determine what features of Ireland’s history are exceptional, but always informed by an exploration of developments in other countries.

2025 marks twenty years since the RIA and the Higher Education Authority established the Gold Medals to acclaim Ireland’s foremost thinkers in the humanities, social sciences, and across the fields of science. The Gold Medals have become the ultimate accolade in scholarly achievement in Ireland. Since 2005, 34 medals have been awarded. In recognition of this important milestone, past RIA Gold Medals recipients have contributed blogs focusing on their research to our Members’ Research Series.

Mary E. Daly MRIA, professor emeritus of Irish History, University College Dublin. She was awarded the RIA Gold Medal in the Humanities in 2020.

An implicit, and sometimes explicit, research question in much of my work, is what features of Ireland’s history are exceptional? A second motivation has often been filling gaps in that history and discovering archival sources.

My research has concentrated on Ireland since the famine, with a focus on social and economic history; it has been informed by looking at developments in other countries. My MA by research, published as Dublin: the deposed capital, 1860–1914 (Cork University Press, 1984), gave me an abiding interest in studying poverty, illness and housing, topics further explored in The buffer state: the historical roots of the Department of the Environment (IPA Dublin, 1997), and various articles. Other recurring themes are economic development, emigration and population decline. Industrial development and Irish national identity, 1922–39 (Syracuse University Press, 1992) examined the efforts of the new state to develop the economy while preserving what it regarded as essential features of Irishness—small farms, rural living, native industries and jobs for men, not women.

An implicit, and sometimes explicit, research question in much of my work, is what features of Ireland’s history are exceptional?

I explored the interplay between Catholic and nationalist ideologies and socio-economic policies in greater depth in The slow failure: population decline and independent Ireland, 1920–1973 (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), and in Sixties Ireland: reshaping the economy, state and society, 1957–1973 (Cambridge University Press, 2016), which cast a critical eye on the years often seen as the golden age, when the economy and society were transformed. In 1961 Ireland had, by a considerable margin, the highest fertility of married women in the world. My 2023 book, The battle to control fertility in modern Ireland (Cambridge University Press), sought to explain this, and why the battle for legal contraception was so fraught and protracted. This is another instance in which Irish society sought to modernise, while retaining what it regarded as essential features of Irishness. Catholicism is an important part of it, but not the sole factor.

Women feature prominently in many of these topics. I have published articles on women’s history, but I prefer to integrate women into the wider story, not least because, as my most recent book suggests, we need to look more closely at men.

Women feature prominently in many of these topics. I have published articles on women’s history, but I prefer to integrate women into the wider story, not least because, as my most recent book suggests, we need to look more closely at men.

Teaching modern Irish history at UCD, where there was a determination to inform students about the history of Ireland since independence, had a major influence on my research, as did decades of interaction with many wonderful graduate students. A social and economic history of Ireland from 1800 (Educational Company, 1981) and The Famine in Ireland (Dublin Historical Association, 1986) were both written with students in mind, as was The Cambridge social history of modern Ireland (Cambridge University Press, 2017), which I co-edited with Eugenio Biagini.

My research career has been disrupted by a variety of academic leadership roles, including that of president of the Royal Irish Academy. During those times I found it difficult to complete a monograph, so I concentrated on editing and writing articles. I made it a rule to always have some research project underway. My current project could be described as micro-history—it’s a study of a provincial Irish town in the 1930s.

As to whether Ireland was/is exceptional, the answer, as ever with history, is complex. Many aspects of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ireland that are popularly regarded as unique can be found in other European countries—but you need to look beyond Britain.