Michael Kennedy

Executive Editor

Documents on Irish Foreign Policy

Dr Michael Kennedy has for almost three decades written and published widely on modern Irish history, in particular on Irish military and diplomatic history and on Irish foreign policy. He has been the executive editor of the RIA's Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series and head of the DIFP series since 1997. Previously he lectured in Irish and European history at Queen's University, Belfast and received his doctorate from the NUI in 1994 on the early history of Ireland’s relationship with the League of Nations.  Michael appears regularly on television and radio discussing aspects of Irish history ranging from lighthouses to embassies to the history of curry houses in Dublin.

Michael’s wide range of books and articles includes:

• Ireland, the United Nations and the Congo (Dublin, 2014);
• Irish Foreign Policy (Dublin, 2012) (with Noel Dorr, Ben Tonra and John Doyle)
• The Chief of Staff’s Report: The Irish Defence Forces 1940-49 (Dublin, 2010) (with Commandant Victor Laing);
• Reconstructing Ireland’s Past: A history of the Irish Manuscripts Commission (Dublin, 2009) (with Deirdre McMahon);
• Guarding Neutral Ireland (Dublin, 2008);
• Obligations and Responsibilities: Ireland and the United Nations, 1955-2005 (co-edited with Deirdre McMahon) (Dublin, 2005);
• Ireland, Europe and the Marshall Plan (Dublin, 2004) (with Till Geiger);
• Ireland and the Council of Europe: From isolation towards integration (Strasbourg, 2000) (with Eunan O'Halpin);
• Irish Foreign Policy 1919 - 1966 from independence to internationalism (Dublin, 2000) (with J.M. Skelly);
• Division and Consensus: the politics of cross-border relations in Ireland 1921 - 1969 (Dublin, 2000);
• Ireland and the League of Nations, 1919-46 (Dublin, 1996);

Michael is a former member of the Irish Manuscripts Commission, a Research Associate of the Centre for Contemporary Irish History, Trinity College, Dublin and was a Visiting Professor at Liverpool Hope University from 2009 to 2018.  He was also formerly an adjunct Professor of History at University College Dublin.