Over the last two decades, my research has focused on various aspects of the political history of modern Ireland. During that time, my interest has focused especially on the final years of the Irish Parliamentary Party. My first book considered the IPP during the third home rule crisis of 1912-14. My work since then has focused on pre-war and wartime Irish nationalism. I have brought these interests together in my current project, provisionally titled The Patriotic Soldier in the Irish Nationalist Imagination: From Young Ireland to the Great War. This was supported be a Leverhulme fellowship in 2019-20.

In recent years, I have also written about a variety of things that interest me: time in early modern England, the history of the gunpowder plot anniversary in Ireland, and statuery in Ireland, Scotland, and America. I am currently working on two side projects: 1. pseudocide in Ireland and Britain c. 1885-1920; 2. Ulster and the British Empire.

During the recent First World War centenary, I worked closely with the Northumbria World War One Commemoration Project on a series of projects about rhe 1914-18 conflict and the North East of England: 1. The Dominion Geordies project (funded by QUB's AHRC WW1 engagement centre); 2. The Geordie Doughboys project (funded by the US Embassy); and 3. The Tynemouth POW project (funded  by HLF). http://northumbriaworldwarone.co.uk 

I am a historian of modern Ireland, c. 1880-1922. I joined Northumbria University in 2008, after working at the universities of Hertfordshire and Ulster. I am particularly interested in the political and parliamentary history of Ireland under the Union, unionism and nationalism, Irish military history, and anything else that piques my interest.