NUI Publication Prize in Irish History

Dr Bronagh Ann McShane, Research Fellow on the VOICES project, has been announced as joint winner of the 2023 National University of Ireland Publication Prize in Irish History for her book Irish Women in Religious Orders, 1530-1700: Suppression, Migration and Reintegration, published by Boydell and Brewer in 2022.

The NUI’s Publication Prize in Irish History is offered for works published as a first sole author book following the conferral of a doctoral degree. The work, which should be substantial, must be of an original character indicating direct research in historical records. 

Drawing on extensive research in archives in Ireland and Europe, Irish Women in Religious Orders is the first comparative, longitudinal examination of the role of women religious (nuns) in the formation and expression of religious identities in Ireland and among Irish migrant communities in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. It offers a unique contribution to the field of Irish women’s and gender history, bringing the lives and experiences of women at the periphery of society and historical scholarship to the fore. The book was short-listed for the Royal Historical Society (UK) 2023 Whitfield Book Prize for best first book in British or Irish history and received ‘Honourable Mention’ from the 2023 Publication Awards Assessment Panel of the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender (USA).