People
Mike Cronin
Professor Mike Cronin has been the Academic Director of Boston College Ireland since 2005. He was educated at the University of Kent and Oxford University where he was awarded his D.Phil. He has published widely on various aspects of Irish history, and is a renowned scholar in the area of sport. He is a regular media commentator on aspects of Irish and sporting history. While at BC, Professor Cronin has developed a series of major public history projects based around Irish topics including the 2008-12 GAA Oral History Project, and since 2013, the major online repository and real time history project for the Irish Decade of Centenaries, Century Ireland.
Fields of Interest:
- Irish history; Sports history; Irish identities and the diaspora; State Spectacles and commemoration.
- Recent publications include:
- Sport: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2014)
- A History of Ireland (Palgrave, 2014)
- Irish History for Dummies (Wiley, 2011).
- Doesn't Time Fly? Aer Lingus - Its History (Collins Press, 2011)
- The GAA: A People’s History (Collins Press, 2009)
- Wearing the Green: A History of St Patrick’s Day (Routledge, 2002).
Phone: +353-1-614-7450
Email: croninmr@bc.edu
Thea Gillen
Thea Gilien is the Boston College Ireland Director of Programmes and responsible for internal operations and events, and for external relations at local, regional and national levels.
Thea oversees the Dublin Summer Internship Programme - work placements for the highly motivated Boston College students interested in developing independence, intra-personal social and professional skills, and international work experience before graduation.
As Co-Chair for the National Association of Study Abroad Providers in Ireland (ASAPI), Thea is interested in promoting the role and value of the American study abroad experience in Ireland - for both the BC college student and their host country.
Students, faculty, alumni and friends of Boston College who are in Dublin are very welcome to contact Thea.
Phone: +353-1-614-7450
Email: thea.gilien@bc.edu
Mark Duncan
Previously a Director of the four-year GAA Oral History Project at Boston College-Ireland, Mark Duncan is also a founder of InQuest Research Group, whose work includes the publication of acclaimed books, the production of award-winning television documentaries, the delivery of premium-quality exhibitions and websites, the management of large-scale legal and research projects, and the provision of accurate, straightforward analysis of public policy.
The author of several books and major reports, he frequently contributes to Irish TV and radio programmes and has published regularly in national newspapers such as The Irish Times on issues of sport, history, education and public policy. He has also contributed reviews to such academic journals as Sport in History and the International Journal of the History of Sport. Prior to founding InQuest, Mark spent a decade as a freelance researcher and writer working mostly with RTÉ Current Affairs, exhibition design companies, law firms and third-level institutions. He has also acted as Head of Research for RTÉ Current Affairs on a broad array of political and state events, including its Election coverage, as well as sole researcher on numerous programmes in the Primetime Investigates series.
Books & Articles
- Creating Ireland: Research & the Role of the Humanities and Social Sciences (Irish Research Council, 2014) with Paul Rouse
- Handling Change: A History of the Irish Bank Officials Association (Collins Press, 2012) with Paul Rouse
- The GAA: County by County (Collins Press, 2011) with Mike Cronin and Paul Rouse
- The GAA: A People’s History (Collins Press, 2009), with Mike Cronin and Paul Rouse
- Transformations: How Research is Changing Ireland (Higher Education Authority, 2008) with Paul Rouse
- MOSAIC: a celebration of Irish research in the humanities and social sciences (IRCHSS, 2008) with Paul Rouse
- National College of Ireland: Past, Present and Future (2007) with Eoin Kinsella and Paul Rouse.
- ‘The Camera and the Gael: The Early Photography of the GAA, 1884-1914’, in Mike Cronin, William Murphy and Paul Rouse (Ed.), The Gaelic Athletic Association 1884–2009 (Irish Academic Press, 2009)
Select Exhibitions:
- Fame, Fortune & Sweet Liberty: the Irish in America’. Commissioned by the National Archives of Ireland and supported by the Irish Department of Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht., this exhibition was launched as part of the ifest festival in Boston in September 2014, before travelling to New York City and Washington D.C.
- Ireland in the early 20th Century, Online exhibition for National Archives of Ireland contextualising the 1911 Irish Census Records Online, http://census.nationalarchives.ie/exhibition/index.html
- UCD & the Making of Modern Ireland,’ at the University College Dublin campus at Belfield, Dublin (2006)
Phone: +353-1-614-7450
Email: markduncanireland@gmail.com