Ruth Duffy

Dr Ruth Duffy is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics (HAPP) at Queen’s University Belfast. Her current project, Prison Healthcare in Northern Ireland: Understanding Healthcare Provision 1921–2025, examines the evolution of medical care within Northern Ireland’s prisons since the establishment of the Northern Ireland Prison Service in 1921. The research investigates how political conflict, institutional culture, and shifting governance structures have shaped the provision and ethics of prison healthcare, with a focus on the principle of healthcare equivalence and the influence of social justice frameworks.

Before taking up her Leverhulme Fellowship, Ruth was a Research Fellow in the School of Arts, English and Languages at Queen’s University Belfast on Dr Alison Garden’s UKRI FLF project, Acts of Union: Mixed Marriage in Modern Ireland. The interdisciplinary project explored how the lived experiences of mixed marriage couples intersect with broader social and cultural narratives, using theatre, exhibitions, and oral history to bring these histories to wider audiences.

Prior to her time at Queen’s, Ruth worked as an Oral History and Public Engagement Officer on the NHS Voices of Covid-19 project at the University of Manchester.

Her first monograph, Healthcare and the Troubles, was published by Liverpool University Press in September 2024. Based on her award-winning PhD thesis, the book received the Donald Murphy Prize for Distinguished First Book 2024 from the American Conference for Irish Studies. 

Her public engagement work includes collaboration with Belfast City Council’s Freedom of the City Music Project(2021–22), where she facilitated story-gathering to recognise key workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. The project culminated in a BBC-broadcast concert and an album produced with local community groups. 

Ruth is a Fellow of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice.

Ruth is a historian of medical and oral history, specialising in modern British and Irish history. Her research explores the intersections between medicine, society, and conflict, with particular focus on Northern Ireland during and after the Troubles. She uses oral history as a key methodological tool to recover hidden or sensitive narratives of healthcare and social experience.

Her current Leverhulme-funded research investigates the history of prison healthcare in Northern Ireland through the lens of social justice, examining issues of access, equity, gender, ethics, and human rights. This builds on her broader interest in how institutions of care operate within divided and post-conflict societies.

Contributed to: 

MHY7081 Topics in Irish History

LIB3001 Arts and Humanities in the Contemporary World

MHY7093 Approaches to History

HAP2001 Northern Ireland: Past, Present and Future