Dr Niall Whelehan
Senior Lecturer
History
Personal statement
My research and teaching focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and themes of migration, political violence, activism, nationalism and colonialism, mainly relating to Ireland and the Irish diaspora. I completed my doctorate at the European University Institute, Florence. Before coming to Strathclyde, I worked at Bielefeld University, Germany, the University of Glaway and the University of Edinburgh. I am presently the Head of the History Subject Area at Strathclyde.
My recent book Changing Land: Diaspora Activism and the Irish Land War (NYU Press, 2021) is based on research supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Intra-European Fellowship and examines radical networks in Ireland and Irish migrant communities in Scotland, England, the United States and Argentina. My first book, The Dynamiters: Irish nationalism and political violence in the wider world, 1867-1900, appeared with Cambridge University Press in 2012.
My present project is a book length study of Irish migration to Argentina and the south Atlantic world more widely in the long nineteenth centiry, and in particular of John O'Dwyer Creaghe, an Irish emigrant who became a leading figure in the Argentine anarchist movement.
Alongside this, I am working on a collabortive project on demography, excess mortality and public health in nineteenth century Ireland.
I am part of the Modern Irish History Group at Strathclyde. I teach classes on the history of the Irish diaspora, the global history of terrorism, Irish nationalism and radicalism, and Ireland and colonialism, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Along with teaching and research, I’m committed to public history. I am part of the Bring Your Own Hammer collaboration between historians and musicians. Bring Yoru Own Hammer is a faction rather than a band, group or collective: where nineteenth-century factions gathered armed with sticks at fairs, this one is armed with voices and instruments, set on reinterpreting historical material in song, and recovering, or carefully imagining, the inner lives of people who survive only as snippets in the archive. The first album of original compositions - My Grief on the Sea - was released in March 2024, and the second album, From The Tombs, will be released in late-2026.
I am interested in the interpretation of history through music and film. For a number of years I organised the series 'Screening Irish History', which has run at the Glasgow Film Theatre, the CCA Glasgow and Edinburgh’s Filmhouse.
Links:
http://strathclyde.academia.edu/NiallWhelehan
https://www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/departmentofhumanities/history/modernirishhistory/
Publications
- 'Edinburgh’s First Hibernian: The Mission Of Edward Joseph Hannan' by Mike Hennessy. Thirsty Books. ISBN 9781739318185
- Whelehan Niall
- 34 (2026)
- Americanisation in Irish Politics, c. 1850 to 1925
- Whelehan Niall
- America in Ireland Culture and Society, 1841–1925 (2025) (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009376884.005
- Modernisation, nineteenth-century Ireland and the early writings of Joe Lee
- Whelehan Niall, McMahon Richard
- A Tract for Our Times A Retrospective on Joe Lee’s Ireland 1912–1985 (2024) (2024)
- Rethinking The Geography Of Distress In Nineteenth-Century Ireland: Excess Mortality And The Land War
- McLaughlin Eoin, Whelehan Niall
- (2024)
- Land and feminism : Marguerite Moore and the Ladies' Land League
- Whelehan Niall
- 30 (2022)
- Changing Land : Diaspora Activism and the Irish Land War
- Whelehan Niall
- The Glucksman Irish Diaspora Series The Glucksman Irish Diaspora Series (2021)
Teaching
I teach undergraduate and postgraduate modules on the history of Ireland and Irish migration, and the history of political violence and terrorism.
I welcome applications from potential PhD students who wish to work on areas of:
- modern Ireland and the Irish diaspora
- migration
- terrorism and political violence
- Ireland and empire
- Cinema and Irish history
Professional Activities
- What History Teaches Us About a Super El Niño
- Contributor
- 19/6/2026
- Radicalism, colonialism and the life of an Irish Doctor in Argentina at the fin de siècle
- Speaker
- 9/2/2026
- Universalisms and Their Uses: the Irish in Latin America
- Keynote speaker
- 21/6/2025
- Internal Examiner - PhD Viva
- Examiner
- 4/12/2024
- History and Terrorism Workshop
- Speaker
- 25/11/2024
- Land Leagues: GalGael Community Workshop Govan
- Speaker
- 1/11/2024
Projects
- Fighting the Red Menace: Irish Women and Global Anti-Communism, 1919-1939
- Lively, Anna (Principal Investigator) Whelehan, Niall (Academic)
- What role did Irish women play in the global spread of anti-communism between 1919 and 1939? This project investigates the diversity of Irish women’s anti-communist activism, including through connections with right-wing groups in the Irish diaspora in Britain, the US and Australia. It focuses on a critical period in the development of global anti-communism, spanning from the Irish War of Independence and the first US Red Scare to the Spanish Civil War. Combining transnational history with gender studies’ approaches, this project analyses a neglected form of Irish women’s political participation and examines the politics of gender on the right.
- 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2027
- The 'Conquest of the Desert': Irish and British migrants and colonial violence in nineteenth-century Argentina
- Whelehan, Niall (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2023 - 30-Jan-2025
- The 'Conquest of the Desert': Irish and British migrants and colonial violence in nineteenth-century Argentina.
- Whelehan, Niall (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2023 - 28-Jan-2025
- Hear the Hammers Ring: Shipyard Workers, Literary Culture and Communities in Clydeside and Belfast, 1840-1914
- Whelehan, Niall (Co-investigator)
- AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award 2021-2025. This supervisor-led studentship application was led by Prof. Kirstie Blair, with myself as second supervisor, and the Scottish Maritime Museum. The student (Ronan McGreechin) was selected after interview. (£72K).
- 01-Jan-2021 - 26-Jan-2026
- Bring your own Hammer: History, Music and Migrant Lives
- Whelehan, Niall (Co-investigator)
- Bring Your Own Hammer brings historians and composers together to create new and original songs based on historical sources and to re-interpret song material rooted in the history of nineteenth-century Ireland and of the Irish Diaspora. It is a project dedicated to the re-interpretation of historical material in song form. The reach and significance of the project’s impact is substantial, aiming to change perceptions of Irish history and migration history in new ways.
- 01-Jan-2020 - 31-Jan-2027
- Emigrant Irishwomen and Dundee’s Textile Industry, 1830-1930
- Whelehan, Niall (Principal Investigator)
- 50% share on successful supervisor-led AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award studentship application, £72K. The studentship began on 1 October 2019, the student selected after interview is Niamh Coffey. (Co-supervised with the University of Edinburgh).
- 01-Jan-2019 - 30-Jan-2023