.Atlas of the Great Irish Famine Editors: John Crowley, W. J. Smyth, Mike Murphy (Cork University Press/New York University Press)

Winner: Best Published Irish Book 2012

Since its launch in Dublin in September 2012 by former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, the Atlas of the Great Irish Famine has been widely acclaimed both nationally and internationally and has been the winner of numerous awards including the Bord Gáis Best Irish-published book of 2012, the Best Irish book of 2012 as voted for by RTE Liveline listeners (Listenership 420,000) and the Geographical Society of Ireland (GSI) Book of the Year (2014).  It was officially launched in New York in November 2012 and in Sydney in August 2013. A leather-bound copy was presented to President Barack Obama by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny during the St Patrick’s Day celebrations in 2013. The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht presented a copy to city and county libraries nationwide in 2012, while the book was presented by CACSSS to each secondary school in the Munster region accompanied by a series of talks on the Famine. A book tour and exhibition was also organised by Cork University Press and presentations were given both nationally and internationally (including venues in London, New York, Chicago, Boston, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth). A copy of the Atlas was presented to President Michael D Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin in November 2012 where the President acknowledged its significance: ‘The book represents a bringing home of the scholarship on the Famine, this particular volume is extraordinarily important, a great celebration of interdisciplinary work of the highest kind. It is just a wonderful book and provides a framework for the final breaking of all the silences that were there about the Famine...’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBGEX45mTPg Professor Gerry Kearns in organising a round table discussion of the atlas in Irish Geography (Routledge, 2014) described its publication as ‘a singular event in Irish publishing and in Irish historical geography (Kearns 2013). Few academic works gather this much public attention and acclaim.’ 

Reviews

'It has been a long time since an Irish-studies book appeared that everyone should read...This book presents a powerful, unflinching account of the Famine as the defining event in Irish history. It balances sweeping surveys with minute details while remaining attentive to the surprising diversity of this tiny island in the 19th century. Its unparalleled assemblage of new maps, old images and extensive documentation offers an unsurpassed teaching aid for the history of the Famine. Firmly rooted in recent scholarship, and interdisciplinary in the most generous sense, it is unafraid to draw the necessary conclusions, even where these undermine the fashionable orthodoxy that adopted a blame-free approach to the worst humanitarian catastrophe in 19th-century Europe'.
Professor Kevin Whelan, Irish Times, 1 September 2012

‘The Atlas of the Great Irish Famine is a stunning achievement, full of cutting-edge research and inter-disciplinary perspectives, lavishly illustrated and a worthy monument to the defining event in modern Irish history.’ 
Professor Diarmuid Ferriter, Department of Modern History, University College Dublin, Irish Times, 8 December 2012  


Atlas of the Irish Revolution Editors: John Crowley, Donal Ó Drisceoil, Mike Murphy, John Borgonovo (Cork University Press/New York University Press)  

Winner: Best Published Irish Book 2017
Winner: Irish Book of the Year 2017

 ‘The most remarkable book this year seems to me Atlas of the Irish Revolution. The new arts and sciences of mapping and data open up the events of the revolutionary period; local, regional, national, making it all a true adventure even for the reader who thinks they know the subject well.’
Eavan Boland, Irish Times, 9 December 2017  

The Atlas of the Irish Revolution (2017) represents a landmark contribution to the study of the revolutionary years in Ireland. Similar in style and scale to the Atlas of the Great Irish Famine (2012), it is a joint project of the School of History and the Department of Geography in University College Cork. The principal challenge involved in the project was to give cartographic expression to a range of historical sources that would bring fresh insights to bear on a multiplicity of military, political, economic, social, demographic and cultural phenomena in the pivotal years from the beginning of the Home Rule crisis in 1912 to the ending of the Civil War in 1923. Over 300 new maps were generated that provided new ways of seeing and understanding the Irish revolutionary experience. One cannot underestimate also the challenge of bringing together so many different scholars from diverse backgrounds, while also working in partnership with the major national and regional archival and cultural institutions to produce a book which is a unique blend of text, map, archival document, photograph and painting. The publication of the atlas in 2017 followed by the launch of a series of online projects and the filming of a major documentary series by RTÉ are other invaluable outcomes and important contributions to public scholarship. The significance of the atlas was recognised by historian and RTÉ broadcaster John Bowman in the following terms:   Perhaps the most ambitious of the highly original Atlas series from Cork University Press. The latest scholarship – and from many diverse viewpoints – places the Irish revolution in its international context. Accessible, readable and brilliantly produced with telling use of photographs and maps, few readers will finish this book without fresh understandings of the forces which shaped modern Ireland – outstanding.

The Research    While the atlas provides ample arresting, original and previously unpublished visual material it is the maps which are the book’s critical research tool serving as portals through which readers can view specific aspects of revolutionary Ireland. The selection of topics for mapping was based on cartographic, conceptual and historical considerations and choices, including the availability of suitable data and the ability to illuminate aspects of the main chapters and case studies. The growth of historical research and the increasing digitisation of data and archives has expanded both the repertoire of subjects capable of being mapped and the quantity of accessible data in relation to specify topics and themes. Much of the extensive original data utilised in this project has been generated from recently released archives, such as the invaluable Military Service Pensions Collection (MSPC). The absence of a cartographic treatment of the Irish revolution until now cannot be attributed solely to data unavailability and technological difficulty, however. With notable exceptions, Irish historians have not been sufficiently ‘map-conscious’ and have failed to give due attention to the geographical dimensions of Irish history in general while historical geographers have been slow to engage with the pivotal years of the Irish revolution. The maps that have been generated for the publication and continue to be generated for the new online projects provide powerful new understandings of this critical period in Irish history.    

The Impact  Since its launch in Dublin in September 2017 the Atlas of the Irish Revolution has been widely acclaimed nationally and internationally for the scope of its vision and its original approach to research on the revolutionary years in Ireland. Published by Cork University Press and by New York University in the United States, it spent over twenty weeks in the Irish Bestsellers listings - two weeks at number one in the Irish non-fiction category [Data Supplied by Nielsen Book Scan taken from the  Irish Consumer Market https://www.writing.ie/] The book has sold over 40,000 copies and continues to sell based on the success of the RTÉ three-part documentary series based on the book, The Irish Revolution (broadcast in 2019) and the three-part The Irish Civil War (broadcast 2022). The Atlas was formally launched in Dublin, Cork, Washington, and London and was the overall winner of the prestigious Book of the Year at the Bórd Gáis Irish Book Awards 2017, having previously been awarded the best Irish-published Book of the Year. It was selected book of the year by the listeners to RTɒs Liveline (c. 400,000 listeners) as well as being awarded the Geographical Society of Ireland Book of the Year in 2018. For an academic publication the book has had an extraordinary impact, and like the Atlas of the Great Famine, it has been embraced by the President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins as signifying all that is good about public scholarship. It has also been widely reviewed in newspapers and academic journals. The editorial team have been involved in a series of radio programmes, lectures, seminars, webinars, and public talks, nationally and internationally.   

Documentaries A three-part documentary series based on the Atlas, directed by Ruán Megan and narrated by Cillian Murphy was broadcast on RTÉ in February 2019 with a repeat broadcast in November 2019. The three episodes are also available long-term on the RTÉ Player. The series attracted an audience of c. one million viewers over the three nights of its initial broadcast. A preview of Episode 2 was the centerpiece of a sold-out gala screening in the Cork Opera House attended by the President of Ireland Michael D Higgins, who took part in a recorded radio discussion afterwards hosted by John Bowman, which was broadcast on 17 March 2019. The documentary was nominated for the PRIX EUROPA Best European TV Documentary of the Year in 2019. It was also broadcast alongside The Hunger as part of an Irish-themed night on ARTE (The European Culture Channel) on 30 November 2021 and attracted 1.18 million viewers in France and 666,000 in Germany. The documentaries have been acclaimed as exemplars of what can be achieved when academics, broadcasters, and television professionals from across Europe combine to realise such ambitious projects. The collaboration with RTÉ , ARTE and UCC continued with a new three-part series narrated by Brendan Gleeson on the Irish Civil War which was broadcast over consecutive nights in Autumn 2022.

An Atlas of the Irish Revolution lecture series was hosted by the National Library of Ireland in 2017 in partnership with UCC, while the National Museum of Ireland included a time series 1916 Deportation map from the atlas in their main exhibition on the 1916 Rising. T

Exhibition. A highly successful Atlas of the Irish Revolution exhibition was hosted in St Peter’s, North Main Street during the summer months of 2019. A guided tour of the exhibition by John Borgonovo on Culture Night, 20 September 2019 was oversubscribed such was its appeal.

Atlas of the Irish Revolution Schools outreach programme. The Atlas of the Irish Revolution Travelling Schools Exhibition managed by Dr Helene O’Keeffe (School of History) was hosted by thirty-three schools in Cork and Kerry with an average of 300 students in each school. At the culmination of the year-long exhibition tour in May 2017, approximately 9,900 second level students engaged directly with the exhibition.

Online projects.  One of the objectives of the Atlas team was to use technology to engage digital learners with the ongoing innovative and collaborative research. Dr Helene O’Keeffe was appointed Digital Officer for the Atlas of the Revolution in 2019 and developed the Irish Revolution website which provides students and the wider public with a range of online resources.  It also showcases newly generated maps based on the Brigade Activity reports in the Military Service Pensions Collection (MSPC). The site was relaunched in January 2022 and was marked by a public webinar on the highly original interactive IRA Companies Map. Helene is also academic editor to the highly successful RTÉ/UCC History online projects covering the War of Independence and Civil War which have attracted 1.182 million unique visitors since their inception in January 2020.  

 Reviews

‘This book magnificently dissects the Irish revolution of 1913-23, layer by layer by layer. The words “landmark” and “ground-breaking” are much overused by publishers, but Cork University Press is much justified in employing those descriptions to trumpet this mammoth production, in all its glory'. Diarmaid Ferriter, Irish Times, Sept. 2017  

‘The Atlas of the Irish Revolution represents a publishing milestone. It is a stunningly beautiful publication … and a gift to the Irish nation.’ Matthew Stout, History Ireland, Nov. 2017    

‘Atlas of the Irish Revolution collects all the best scholars of the period in one definitive, weighty tome. It is a book that no revolution should be without.’
Colm Tóibín, Irish Times, Sept. 2017  

‘In an age of rampant short-termism, the editors and Cork University Press have embraced a more ambitious, but also accessible, vision of what true scholastic achievement should look like. They deserve our commendation and our gratitude.’
Tim Wilson, Irish Geography, May 2018  

‘It is tremendously helpful and stimulating for academics, and accessible for students and others. In a historiographical field marred, and sometimes characterized, by sectarianism and mythmaking, it is rewarding to see this work produced as a collection by over 100 scholars.’
Jeremy Black, Journal of European Studies, 2018  

‘A significant historiographical milestone has been reached with the Atlas of the Irish Revolution…this tour de force has already proven a success, receiving three book awards and a supplementary three-part television documentary.’  
Willie Jenkins, Journal of Historical Geography, 2020


Atlas of the Irish Civil War: New Perspectives - edited by Helene O'Keefe, John Crowley, Donal O Drisceoil, John Borgonovo and Mike Murphy (Cork University Press)  was launched in the National Library of Ireland in Dublin and University College Cork in the autumn of 2024.

Winner: History Book of the Year 2024

During the Cork launch, Dr Maurice Manning (Chancellor of the National University of Ireland, 2009-2024) referred to the 'sheer quality and magnificence of the book' ... I have launched many books over my career and I can say this ranks as almost certainly the finest. The finest in its courage in tackling head on issues hitherto ignored or evaded, the finest in its editorial and production values and the finest in the comprehensive range of issues covered'.

Winner of the Hodges Figgis History Book of the Year at the An Post Irish Book awards in 2024 

Reviews

'The Atlas of the Irish Civil War is the third in a series of historical atlases produced by editors based in University College Cork and published by Cork University Press. Many households in Ireland and abroad are adorned by the previous two – the Atlas of the Great Irish Famine 1845-52, published in 2012, and the Atlas of the Irish Revolution, published in 2017. This is now a formidable series of books which presents Irish history and geography with imagination, innovation, scholarship and engagement'.

Caitriona Crowe, Irish Times, 5 October 2024

'This conflict has never been addressed so comprehensively as in this superb new atlas of the Irish Civil War...It is a worthy companion to the Atlas of the Irish Revolution'

Dermot Bolger, Business Post, 11 October 2024

'There is so much reckoning still to be done with this period in our history...Atlas [of the Irish Civil War] brilliantly starts this conversation with many new dimensions...It does an excellent job of telling the known story of the Civil War: the who, what, when of things, and an almost better one of roping in the lesser known ones'.

Emily Hourican, Sunday Independent, 19 January 2025

An Post Irish Book awards, Convention Centre, Dublin, 2024
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1144937657276817

The Book of the Skelligs Editors: John Crowley and John Sheehan, Photography: Valerie O'Sullivan (Cork University Press)

Shortlisted: Best Published Irish book 2022 

Reviews

'One might have thought that no single book could hope to do justice, then, to Skellig, in all its manifestations, its power to cast a spell – but to the credit of its visionary editors, John Crowley and John Sheehan, and to the credit also of its many gifted and learned contributors, The Book of the Skelligs is a marvel in itself, as potent and satisfying a spur to thought and the imagination as the place itself. Yet another handsome and magisterial gift to the world from Cork University Press, it brings together learning and scholarship, thoughtful reflections, poems, and the spectacular images of photographer Valerie O’Sullivan, to make a whole that is considerably more than the sum of its parts...The Book of the Skelligs is one of those remarkable texts that will keep on giving – to our sense of many-layered histories, to our sense of the sacred inscape of the natural world, our kinship with creatures of earth, sea and air, our unbroken compact of wonder with all those who have gone before us, searching out, like those medieval monks, the horizon of the eternal. This book is, in the best of all possible senses of the word, a monumental work'.

Theo Dorgan, Independent Thinking, 9 December 2022

'...a collection of remarkable texts...the ostensibly remote Skelligs have been woven into the heart of human, cultural and natural history; this book’s great achievement is to delineate the place of the islands in our imaginations, and to contextualise these histories, stretching them beyond merely human chronicles'.

Neil Hegarty, Irish Times, 9 November 2022

I have always put great emphasis on developing and improving the quality of the teaching and learning experience for students. I teach some of the largest elective modules in our second- and third-year programmes and have done so on a consistent basis over many years – GG 2014 Geography of Tourism and GG 3037 Geography of Heritage. The modules are cutting edge in terms of the subject matter reflecting new academic research as well as debates, discourses in the public realm. I have also contributed to a range of other modules including GG 3006 (Dissertation) where students are guided in producing their own independent research. The range, diversity and depth of the research conducted by the students reflect the levels of interest and engagement with the topics and the interaction with their supervisor. I have also contributed to GG 2038 which focuses on the research methods employed by geographers in the field and to a highly innovative field programme (GG 2022) where students are continually challenged on the contemporary meaning of geography and the application of its constantly evolving methods to research themes in both rural and urban environments.