History and Philosophy

Jackie Uí Chionna was born in Dublin, but now lives in Galway, in the West of Ireland, where she teaches History at the National University of Ireland, Galway. She has combined a career in heritage management with academia and academic research. A graduate of UCD in History and English, she holds a PhD in History (NUIG), an MA in Heritage Management (UCC), and a Higher Diploma in Education (TCD). Her specialism is in modern Irish history, and she has a particular interest in the social and cultural history of the revolutionary period, 1912-1922, and the emergence of the independent Irish state. Her other research interests include oral history, the history of Irish family businesses, and the history of education. Her recent research is more global in nature, and relates to the history of intelligence, specifically cryptography and the breaking of codes for the purposes of wartime intelligence gathering. She is an experienced oral historian, and has used oral history extensively in her research. A fluent Irish speaker, she has taught history courses through the medium of Irish, and has incorporated Irish language sources extensively  in her publications and conference presentations.

From 2007-2009 she was commissioned as Senior Researcher by NUI Galway to undertake "The University in Living Memory Oral History Project". The project was designed to establish what it was like to study, teach or work at University College Galway from 1930-1980.  A publication based on the project's interviews,  entitled An Oral History of University College Galway, 1930-1980: A University in Living Memory will be published by Four Courts Press, Dublin, in Autumn 2019.
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From 2013-15 she held the Thomas McDonogh Post-Doctoral research fellowship at NUIG, during which she produced a biography of Galway businessman, entrepreneur and politician, Máirtín Mór McDonogh . The book He Was Galway: Máirtín Mór McDonogh, 1860-1934 was published by Four Courts Press, Dublin in November 2016.

She is currently a Research Fellow at the Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences at NUIG, where she is researching  her next book, a biography of Emily Anderson OBE (1891-1962). A former Professor of German at University College Galway, Anderson was recruited by the British Foreign Office in 1918 and was one of the pioneers in the development of cryptanalysis - the breaking of enemy codes for intelligence purposes. Anderson was also a renowned scholar who published landmark works on the letters of Mozart and Beethoven.

Jackie was recently awarded an Archives By-Fellowship at Churchill College Cambridge to work on her biography of Emily Anderson, and will take up the By-Fellowship in April 2019.

She is a member of the organising committee of the INISH: Island Conversations festival, which takes place annually on the island of Inishbofin, off the west coast of Ireland.
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