Library Lunchtime Lecture: Dr Michael Kennedy, '''Follow an independent line": how United Nations membership transformed Irish foreign policy'.

In conjunction with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Academy's Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series has organised an exhibition 'UN60' reflecting upon Ireland's membership of the UN from 1955. The Academy Library is proud to host this exhibition from 5 to 15 January 2016 and to present a lecture by Dr Michael Kennedy, Executive Editor, DIFP, in which he will explore Ireland's roll at the UN General Assembly in the late 1950s, early participation in peacekeeping, and the ways in which membership of the UN has shaped Ireland's foreign policy.

Michael Kennedy is the Executive Editor of the Royal Irish Academy’s Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series (www.difp.ie and @DIFP_RIA), volume X of which will be published in 2016. He is the author of many books and articles on twentieth Irish diplomatic and military history, the most recent being Ireland, the United Nations and the Congo in 2014. He is a member of the Irish Manuscripts Commission, a Research Associate of the Centre for Contemporary Irish History at TCD, and a Visiting Professor of History at Liverpool Hope University.

This lecture is accompanied by an exhibition ‘UN60:  Éire ag na Náisiúin Aontaithe / Ireland at the United Nations, 1955-2015’.