Listen back to our 2025 Heritage Week lecture by Emma Murphy, curator at the National Museum of Ireland – Natural History. Learn about R. J. Ussher MRIA, 1841-1913, and his connections to the National Museum, including a large collection of archived correspondence from Ussher to the curators and the hundreds of specimen donations that Ussher gave personally, or were given by his associates due to his encouragement.

Richard John Ussher MRIA, 1841-1913, was a speleologist, ornithologist, and renowned Irish naturalist. He published lists of Irish birds, showing the species contained in the National Collection. These, alongside “The Birds of Ireland” (1900), co-authored with Warren, were important works in the history of Irish ornithology. He donated his archive collection to the Royal Irish Academy, and many specimens to the National Museum of Ireland - Natural History.

Emma Murphy, Curator of Terrestrial Zoology at NMI – Natural History gave this lecture, exploring some of the stories, both funny and tragic, that can be found within Ussher’s collections, and highlighting his enduring scientific legacy.

This lecture was part of an programme of events relating to the Ussher Birds Notes collection, held in RIA Library. In 2024, the Library received funding from the Heritage Council as part of the Heritage Stewardship Fund for a project entitled, ‘The Birds of Ireland: Curating the Richard J. Ussher Collection at the Royal Irish Academy’. This project aimed to secure the long-term preservation, access, and discovery of material from the Ussher Bird Notes Collection through a programme of archival cataloguing, digitisation and outreach. The Ussher Bird Notes Digital Archive was launched in May 2025, and included digital images, with accompanying metadata, of 900 selected items from the collection. Detailed cataloguing of over 9000 items from the collection was also completed and researchers can contact library@ria.ie for more information about this listing. 

Thanks to a second tranche of funding from the Heritage Stewardship Fund, granted in 2025, the remainder of the Ussher Bird Notes Collection will be catalogued and more material will be added to the digital archive in due course.

A Naturalist’s Record: Stories from the Collections of R. J. Ussher

In this episode of ‘My Identity’ Professor Colin Graham (Maynooth) is in conversation with Leo Varadkar.

Leo Varadkar was Taoiseach of Ireland from 2017 to 2020 and from 2022 to 2024. During the thirteen years he spent in cabinet, he held many positions across the Ministries of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Social Protection, and Health.

After stepping down from political life in late 2024, he was appointed as a Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, a Board Member of Brussels based Care4Everybody and writes a column for the Sunday Times Ireland.
In this episode he discusses, among other things, national identity, religion, family and his book: Speaking My Mind.

About the Series

My Identity is hosted by Professor Colin Graham, Maynooth. In this series, Colin is in conversation with a range of people whose ideas, work and life experiences shed light on the topic of identity on the Island of Ireland. My Identity is part of the ARINS project. 

Colin Graham is Professor English and formerly Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Maynooth University. His books include Northern Ireland: Thirty Years of Photography, Deconstructing Ireland and Ideologies of Epic. He was editor of The Irish Review from 2004 to 2020. During the Brexit negotiations he created the Twitter account @borderirish and wrote the book I am the Border, so I am, published by HarperCollins.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.
My Identity is hosted by Professor Colin Graham. Podcast management and production by Dr Susie Deedigan.

ARINS My Identity: Episode 6 with Leo Varadkar

The Book of Lecan Conference

During this two-day event in October 2025, speakers explored the production of the Book of Lecan or Leabhar Mór Lecain, its scribes and patrons, and the texts contained within the manuscript.

The manuscript known as the Book of Lecan (Leabhar Mór Lecain) was created in Co. Sligo in the early fifteenth century. It contains a large amount of genealogical material, especially relating to the families with which the scribes were associated, as well as historical, biblical and hagiographical material. Included are a Dindshenchas, Bansenchas, and versions of Lebor Gabála, Uraicept an nÉces, Cóir Anmann, and Book of Rights. The conference papers shared new insights into how the manuscript was produced, its history of ownership and the significance of the various texts found within the compilation.

The event was a collaboration between the Royal Irish Academy, Maynooth University, and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Recordings have some of the lectures have been made available, subject to the presenters’ consent. It is hoped that the proceedings of this conference will be published as part of the Codices Hibernenses Eximii series in due course.

Thursday 2 October 2025
2.00 pm Making the Book of Lecan - Pádraig Ó Macháin
2.45 pm The Later History of the Book of Lecan - Bernadette Cunningham
3.30 pm Coffee break
4.00 pm Poets and Poetry in the Book of Lecan - Elizabeth Boyle
4.45 pm Lebor Bretnach and the International Perspective of the Book of Lecan - Patrick Wadden

Friday 3 October 2025
9.30am A History of the Men of Britain: Text and Context - Alex Woolf
10.15 am Lebor na Cert: a “Grossly Overrated” Text? - Seán Ó Hoireabhárd
11.00 am Coffee break
11.30 am Gilla Íosa Mór: Pseudohistorian - John Carey
12.15 pm Shaping Dindshenchas Érenn: What the Book of Lecan Version Reveals - Máire Ní Mhaonaigh and David McCay
1.00 pm Lunch
2.30pm A Return to Cóir Anmann: its Etymologies, its Date and the Book of Lecan Text - Sharon Arbuthnot
3.15pm The Book of Lecan’s Secular Genealogies (especially those of Connacht) - Nollaig Ó Muraíle
4.00 pm “A Splendid Family Heirloom”:  Manuscript Illumination and the School of Lecan - Karen Ralph



“A Splendid Family Heirloom”:  Manuscript Illumination and the School of Lecan - Karen Ralph

@radio-relativa

In this first episode of Lack of Sleep, I share the sound of my sleepless nights. Unreleased tracks, downtempo moods, edits and years of searching distilled into one moment. No boundaries, no rush just sound and time.

Lack of Sleep #001

As part of Dublin Festival of History, this lecture was organised to mark the RIA Library exhibition, Collecting Ireland’s History.

This lecture was organised in collaboration with the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (VRTI) Library Network and explored the diverse approaches to collecting Irish historical manuscripts of the last 700 years; and the role of libraries in preserving and recovering lost materials. Focusing on materials from the Bodleian Libraries, Cambridge University Library, British Library, National Library Ireland, Trinity College Dublin and the Royal Irish Academy, the talk also addressed the themes presented in the accompanying Collecting Ireland’s History exhibition. It examined the links between private and institutional collecting and how their combined efforts are helping to reconstruct a lost archive: the Public Record Office of Ireland, destroyed on 30 June 1922.

About the speaker

Dr Sarah Hendriks is an early modern historian specialising in the socio-cultural and architectural history of Ireland and the British Isles. She has studied and worked in universities around the world including The Australian National University, The University of Oxford, The University of Cambridge, and The University of Edinburgh. At the time of recording, Sarah was Archival Discovery Research Fellow and Lead Coordinator of the Library Network for the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland.

Collecting Ireland's History Lecture

Episode 21 of 20 Seconds Radio on Archipel Stations Community Radio, 88.4 Berlin/90.7 Potsdam.

20 Seconds editors Daniel Melfi and Timothy Isherwood present the magazine’s breadth of coverage in sonic shapes not possible in print, meandering through paths of medium-specific experimentation.

Broadcast live from Berlin

Tracklist:

Ben Fawkes – Foreign Screams (Part Dos, self-released, 2025)
Colin Fisher – Mundial Imaginalis (Suns of the Heart, We Are Busy Bodies, 2024)
Lea Bertucci – In This Time (The Oracle, Cibachrome Editions, 2025)
Saudara Tua – Saudara Tua (Saudara Tua, Public Eyesore Records, 2025)
Dan Fortin – Minty (feat. Karen Ng (Cannon, Elastic Recordings, 2024)
Jessica Moss – no where (Unfolding, Constellation Records, 2025)
Remo Helfenstein – Mal de Mer (Spite, Präsens Editionen, 2025)
Mohammad Reza Mortazavi – Dorna (Nexus, Latency, 2025)
Ruth Mascelli & Mary Hanson Scott – A Lover’s Theory of Value (Esoteric Lounge Music Now, Disciples, 2025)
Pray-Pax – Domani non c’e sarà più (The Lolita Years, Zel Zele, 2025)
ILYICH – Third Grain: For Those Who Are Born, Death Is Certain. For Those Who Die, Birth Is Certain. Feat. Susanne Sachsse (Sudnozavod, afterlife records, 2025)
Mira – Viola (Erica, Maple Death Records, 2025)

20 Seconds Radio - Episode 21 (4/11/25) on Archipel Stations


In this month’s ARINS podcast, host Rory Montgomery chat to Fintan O’Toole and Sam McBride about their recent ARINS publication: For and Against a United Ireland. 

The prospect of Irish unification is now stronger than at any point since partition in 1921. Voters on both sides of the Irish border may soon have to confront for themselves what the answer to a referendum question would mean - for themselves, for their neighbours, and for their society.

Journalists Fintan O'Toole and Sam McBride examine the strongest arguments for and against a united Ireland. What do the words 'united Ireland' even mean? Would it be better for Northern Ireland? Would it improve lives in the Republic of Ireland? And could it be brought about without bloodshed?

O’Toole and McBride each argue the case for and against unity, questioning received wisdom and bringing fresh thinking to one of Ireland’s most intractable questions. With cartoons by Fergus Boylan.

The book has been shortlisted for An Post Book Award 2025 - BEST IRISH-PUBLISHED BOOK OF THE YEAR. See shortlist

Book tickets to see the authors debate the strongest arguments for and against a united Ireland in The Lyric Theatre, Belfast and The National Concert Hall, Dublin in November 2025!
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This is episode 47 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs. 
 



ARINS Podcast 47: For and Against a United Ireland

In this episode of ‘My Identity’ Professor Colin Graham (Maynooth) is in conversation with Jess Majekodunmi. 

Jess Majekodunmi is Managing Director of the Human Sciences Studio at Accenture, a Member of the Board of Directors at the Irish Museum of Modern Art and a champion of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. 

The My Identity series is hosted by Professor Colin Graham, Maynooth. In this series, Colin is in conversation with a range of people whose ideas, work and life experiences shed light on the topic of identity on the Island of Ireland. My Identity is part of the ARINS project.

Colin Graham is Professor English and formerly Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Maynooth University. His books include Northern Ireland: Thirty Years of Photography, Deconstructing Ireland and Ideologies of Epic. He was editor of The Irish Review from 2004 to 2020. During the Brexit negotiations he created the Twitter account @borderirish and wrote the book I am the Border, so I am, published by HarperCollins. 

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com 

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs. 

My Identity is hosted by Professor Colin Graham. 

Podcast management and production by Dr Susie Deedigan (University of Notre Dame).


ARINS My Identity: Episode 7 with Jess Majekodunmi

The Royal Irish Academy/Acadamh Ríoga na hEireann is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is the principal learned society in Ireland and has over 420 members who are elected in recognition of their academic achievements.

The Royal Irish Academy, the academy for the sciences and humanities for the whole of Ireland will vigorously promote excellence in scholarship, recognise achievements in learning, direct research programmes and undertake its own research projects, particularly in areas relating to Ireland and its heritage.

A Naturalist’s Record: Stories from the Collections of R. J. Ussher

The Royal Irish Academy

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