''IHSA'' () is an academic organisation which promotes the study of

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. The organisation was founded in 1950 by representatives from the main universities of Ireland in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. The association organises an annual conference in Ireland on a rotating basis between the main third level institutions offering history courses and research facilities. Its current Reachtaire (Chair) is Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley.

History

The Inaugural Congress of the Irish Inter-Varsity History Students took place at Newman House, St Stephen's Green, Dublin, on 17 February 1950. Niall Delargy (University College Galway, now

NUI Galway The University of Galway () is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. The university was founded in 1845 as "Queen's College, Galway". It was known as "University College, Galway" (UCG) () from 1908 to 1997 and as ...

), F.X. Martin (

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

), Con O'Leary (

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Universit ...

), Cecil Smith (

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

), and Laird Taylor (

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

) were instrumental in organising the first annual congress.

Robert Dudley Edwards Robert Walter Dudley Edwards (4 June 1909 – 5 June 1988) was an Irish historian, one of the leaders of the 'scientific revolution' in Irish history, co-founder of the journal Irish Historical Studies and a lifelong campaigner for archives. He ...

(1909–88), Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD, was a key figure in what became known as the Irish Universities History Students' Association, now called the Comhaltas na gCumann Staıre (CCS) - Irish History Students' Association (IHSA), serving as senior archivist and adviser to successive committees down to 1980 when he retired from the post.

Conference

The association organises an annual conference on a rotating basis between the main third level institutions of Ireland. This conference sees papers presented by those studying and researching history at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In more recent years the vast majority of papers presented are by students undertaking a PhD. The conference generally features an opening reception on a Friday evening with the papers presented the following day. Due to the large number of papers presented it is normal to have multiple panels of papers taking place at the same time. The Comhdháil 2016 Conference took place on the weekend of the 19–21 February 2016 on the campus of NUIG in Gaillimh -

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

, the main city of the province of

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

on the west coast of the island.

followed-up by hosting of the annual conference for 2017 while the following year's conference took place on the Derry campus of the

University of Ulster Ulster University (; Ulster Scots: or ), legally the University of Ulster, is a multi-campus public research university located in Northern Ireland. It is often referred to informally and unofficially as Ulster, or by the abbreviation UU. It i ...

. On the weekend of 1–2 March the Comhdháil 2019 Conference was organised on the campus of MIC (Coláiste Mhuire Gan Smál) in the city of Limerick. Following several years of not hosting a conference University College Dublin hosted the 2020 conference over the weekend of the 28–29 February, before the full impact of the Covid19 pandemic was felt in Ireland. Due to the aforementioned pandemic the 2021 conference is planned to happen entirely online, making it the Association's first ever virtual conference. The 2021 host institution is

Maynooth University Maynooth University (MU) (), is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. Maynooth University was formerly known as National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM; ). It was Ireland ...

(Ollscoil Mhá Nuad), also known as the National University of Ireland Maynooth.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official websiteOfficial 2016 Conference blog
Student organisations in the Republic of Ireland Historiography of Ireland History organisations based in the Republic of Ireland