Heather Laird

Heather Laird

UCC

Dr Heather Laird is a lecturer at the School of English at UCC. She is a former Irish Research Council awardee.

James Joyce: portrait of the artist as a young cattleman

What did James Joyce have to say about the Irish beef industry?

Dive into Ulysses and you'll find much about cattle - and the economic relationship between Ireland and Britain

James Joyce • 10 Jun 24

Female members of the O'Halloran family from Bodyke, Co Clare who resisted eviction during the Plan Of Campaign in 1887. Photo: Eblana Photograph Collection/National Library of Ireland via Flickr

How Irish women resisted evictions during the Land War

Women were amongst the most active combatants in the Land War when it came to evictions and resistance to them

History • 03 Apr 23

Locals reading election posters in Ennis, Co Clare ahead of the 1923 general election, the first held since the establishment of the Irish Free State. Photo: Central Press/Getty Images

How did Free State government deal with rural unrest over land?

Strife and unrest over land generated trouble in rural Ireland and meant considerable anxiety for the First Dáil and Free State government

History • 14 Dec 22

Author Lee Dunne (centre) with the cast of 'Harbour Hotel', a a long-running radio soap which was broadcast at lunchtimes on RTÉ Radio.

How Lee Dunne challenged the depiction of working-class mothers

Out of Lee Dunne's work, Goodbye to the Hill tends to receive the most attention, but his lesser-known 1970 novel Does your Mother? deserves recognition for challenging the depiction of working-class Irish motherhood.

Lee Dunne • 12 Apr 21

Patrick MacGill. Photo: Sasha/ Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Why Irish literature needs to let the navvies into the Big House

It's timely to re-assess the contribution agricultural labourers have made to Irish literature both directly and indirectly

Literature • 05 Feb 21

Canon Sheehan's 1901 novel Luke Delmege contains a rare contemporary fictional depiction of a Magdalene laundry.

Canon Sheehan, the Magdalene Laundries and Irish incarceration

The cleric and author's omission of the horrors of a Magdalene laundry for its workers says much about Ireland's culture of incarceration

History • 20 Jan 21

Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington was one of many Irish women who availed of the opportunity to be a judge in the Dáil courts

How Irish women played a key role in the 1920s' Dáil courts

The 1920s' legal system was innovative in its use of female judges and evoking Brehon laws in cases concerning single mothers

History • 11 Dec 20

The foundation of an alternative legal system by the first Dáil played a key role in the setting up of a counter-state

The story of the first Dáil's 'illegal' legal system

The Dáil Courts were most active during the War of Independence and involved many disputes over land

History • 24 Jul 20

Why we should remember the 1920 land seizures in Ireland

Intense agitation and outrage over land saw violence 'sweeping through the west like a prairie fire' a century ago

History • 17 Jun 20

"The truism that Irish people are predisposed to being particularly obsessed with owning property and land needs to be challenged as it is not only false but exclusory, creating prejudice against those who don't own property and land."

What are the roots of the Irish obsession with property?

The importance of private property in Ireland has seen the growth of a negative attitude towards those who don't own houses or land

Property • 21 Mar 19

Heather Laird

What did James Joyce have to say about the Irish beef industry?

How Irish women resisted evictions during the Land War

How did Free State government deal with rural unrest over land?

How Lee Dunne challenged the depiction of working-class mothers

Why Irish literature needs to let the navvies into the Big House

Canon Sheehan, the Magdalene Laundries and Irish incarceration

How Irish women played a key role in the 1920s' Dáil courts

The story of the first Dáil's 'illegal' legal system

Why we should remember the 1920 land seizures in Ireland

What are the roots of the Irish obsession with property?

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