Barry-John McCann

I am a PhD researcher in the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics.  Having graduated with a BA (History & Political Science) from Trinity College Dublin in 1999, I subsequently completed a Higher Diploma in Education and was a secondary school teacher of history in a number of Dublin schools from 2001-2016.  When I returned north in 2016 I completed a taught MA here at QUB with my dissertation focusing on the administration of military service pensions to six-county veterans under the 1924 Military Service Pensions Act.

My current research looks to build on this with a more comprehensive examination of the post-conflict experiences of northern I.R.A. veterans who applied to the Irish state for service or disability pensions concerning actions carried out during the Irish Revolution (1916-23).  This discrete cohort presented unique issues relating to jurisdictional authority, national identity and the construction of memory on the success or otherwise of the revolution.  It is hoped that such a project can build on the burgeoning literature focused on the ‘northern’ experience of the revolution by addressing how these veterans sought to reconcile their revolutionary experiences with the post-conflict reality of partition, while simultaneously examining how the southern state dealt with the challenges presented by this cohort over an extended period of time.

Contact: [email protected]