Plenary Speakers

Prof. Enda Delaney, Chair in Modern History, University of Edinburgh

Enda Delaney is Professor of Modern History and Director of Research at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, a major interdisciplinary institute at the University of Edinburgh which draws together research from the arts, humanities and sciences. He has published extensively on the history of modern Ireland, including religion, emigration and the Great Famine, and the global Irish diaspora since c. 1800. His book, Making Ireland Modern: The Transformation of Society and Culture, will be published in 2024 by Oxford University Press.

Chanté Mouton Kinyon is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame. Kinyon’s primary research explores transnational Black American literature and culture, with a particular interest in the way in which Black American culture and literature intersects with Irish culture and literature. The 2019–2021 Moreau Postdoctoral Fellow (ND), Kinyon was previously the 2018–2019 NEH Fellow at the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies.

Paul Lynch is the award-winning author of five novels - Prophet Song, Beyond the Sea, Grace, The Black Snow and Red Sky in Morning. His most recent novel, Prophet Song was published to wide acclaim in 2023 and won the Booker Prize. It was also shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year. 

He has previously won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, and France’s Prix Libr’à Nous for Best Foreign Novel, among other prizes. He has been shortlisted for many international awards, including the UK’s Walter Scott Prize, and France’s Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, Prix Littérature-Monde, and the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature. He lives in Dublin.

Dr. Radvan Markus, Senior Lecturer in Irish Language and Literature, Charles University, Prague

Radvan Markus is senior lecturer in the Irish language and literature at Charles University, Prague. He is the author of Carnabhal na Marbh: Cré na Cille agus Litríocht an Domhain (Leabhar Breac, 2023) and Echoes of the Rebellion: The Year 1798 in Twentieth-Century Irish Fiction and Drama (Peter Lang, 2015). He has published widely on modern(ist) Irish-language prose and drama, focusing on the work of Pádraic Ó Conaire, Micheál Mac Liammóir, Flann O’Brien, Máirtín Ó Cadhain and others. He also translates from Irish to Czech, his translation of Máirtín Ó Cadhain’s Cré na Cille won the prestigious Magnesia Litera award in 2018.

Dr Hannagh McGinley, Assistant Professor of Education, MIC Thurles

Dr Hannagh McGinley is a member of the Irish Mincéir/Pavee (commonly referred to as Travellers) community. Her research expertise is Traveller education, anti-racism, culturally responsive and intercultural approaches to education. Her roles have included post-primary school teacher, community development practitioner, casual lecturer and module coordinator. Dr McGinley worked as an Education Officer at the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), where she was responsible for advancing the recommendations of NCCA’s Traveller Culture and History in the Curriculum: A Curriculum Audit. More recently she was appointed the role of Assistant Professor in Education in MIC Thurles.

Dr. Caroline Magennis, Reader in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature, University of Salford

Caroline Magennis is Associate Professor (Reader) in Contemporary Literature at the University of Salford, where she is Impact Lead for the School of Arts and Media and teaches as much Irish writing as they will let her get away with. She is the author of Northern Irish Writing After The Troubles (2021), which was the joint winner of the BACLS Prize, and Harpy: A Manifesto for Childfree Women, which will be published in May 2024 by Icon Books (English) and Grupo Planeta (Spanish). Originally from Portadown, Co. Armagh, she has published widely on literature and culture from the North with a focus on women's writing, contemporary fiction and popular culture.