Page 19 - The 17th Percy French Festival: The Quest for Authenticity

Tom is an Independent Senator elected to Seanad Éireann, Dublin Brian is an adjunct associate professor in the history depart-
University, Trinity College Dublin Panel. He is an academic, writer, ment at Maynooth University, specialising in the social history
and journalist, and as an independent security analyst he provides of nineteenth and early twentieth century Ireland. He has a par-
defence and intelligence analysis for international broad cas ters. ticular interest in the history of the Royal Irish Constabulary and
As an Army Officer (Captain) Tom has direct experience of armed Dublin Metropolitan Police, crime, and sport (especially cycling).
conflict in Ireland, the Middle East, and former Yugoslavia. One of Recent publications include articles on Percy French’s war-
Ireland’s foremost whistleblowers, his PhD revealed shocking lev- related entertainments during the Great War, the bicycle in the
els of sexual violence within Ireland’s armed forces. He provides Irish Revolution, Jack B. Yeat’s Punch cartoons during the Great
consultancy on gender-based discrimination and violence. Tom is War, and freak shows in 19th century Ireland. Work in progress
one of Ireland’s leading public advocates for citizens with disabili- includes articles on bicycle advertisements in the Second World
ties. He is a parent of four children and is carer for his son Eoghan War and street football in Ireland from the 1870s to the 1970s.
who suffers from a rare neuromus cular disease. He has been Chair- His latest book is Crime and the Criminal Classes in Ireland, 1870–
senator DR tom clonan man and Board Member of Dogs for the Disabled (Ireland). He is Dr Brian Griffin 1920, (Cork University Press, 2024)
Chairman of the Board of dance theatre company, Junk Ensemble.
He is author of two books, Blood, Sweat and Tears, (Liberties Press,
2012) and Whistleblower, Soldier, Spy, (Liberties Press, 2013).
Maeve is lecturer in Women’s and Cultural History at University
College Cork. She is author of Women of the Irish Country House,
1860–1914 (Liverpool University Press, 2018) and several other
Patrick is a long-standing member of the Dictionary of Irish Biogra- pieces on elite women in Ireland. She is currently exploring the
phy editorial team (joined 2003), and has contributed more than experiences of single women. Maeve previously worked at the
500 entries, including many on significant political, literary, and Higher Education Authority and the Irish Research Council.
relig ious figures of the 20th century, with particular reference to She won Irish Research Council funding for her PhD (UCC, 2014)
Northern Ireland. He is a graduate of University College Cork (BA in and for her postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre for the Study
English and history; MA in history) and Queen’s University Belfast of Historic Irish Houses and Estates at Maynooth University.
(PhD in politics, postgraduate Cert in Higher Education Teaching). She is an elected fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
He has taught history and politics at University College Dublin and
at QUB (where he held three research fellowships (1993–4; 1995–
’
8; and 1998–2001). Has published numerous articles and book DR Maeve oRiordan
chapters on 19th and 20th-century Irish history. He has written
two biogra phies: one of Daniel Corkery, the Irish politician, writer
Dr Patrick Maume and academic, the other of D. P. Moran, (the Irish journalist, activist
and cultural-political theorist).
Eve is involved in psychoanalytic practice, training, education, and
research. She is a co-director of a busy Dublin city centre psycho -
therapy practice, and has published over 40 essays on psychoanal-
ysis, sexuality, film, culture, and literature. Her co-edited books are:
Catriona lectured in History at Galway University for 35 years, Freud’s Principal Case Studies Revisited: Freudian–Lacanian Psycho-
She has written books on nuns, social history, women’s maga- analysts Reconsider the Legacy (2025, Routledge); Critical Essays on
zines, and women’s household work. She has just completed the Drive: Lacanian Theory and Practice (2024, Routledge); Clinical
a concise history of Ireland for Cambridge University Press, and Encounters in Sexuality (2017, Punctum); and there is a collection
is now embarking on a biography of Alice Curtayne. She has on James Joyce’s writing forthcoming in 2026. In 2022 was the
known and loved Percy French songs all her life. Erik Erikson Scholar-in-Residence at the Austen Riggs Centre in
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and is currently the academic direc-
tor of the Freud Lacan institute (FLi) in Dublin. She will be the
Dr Eve Watson Burns Scholar in Irish Studies at Boston College in late 2025.

Dr CaitrÍona Clear

•16• THE P ERCY FRENCH FESTIVAL 2025 THE QUEST FOR AUTHENTICIT Y •17•