Prof Terence Dooley

History, Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates

Professor, Head of Department
Director: Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates

Rhetoric House
First
53A
(01) 708 6152

Biography

Professor Terence Dooley, MA, Ph.D. (NUI), H. Dip. Ed. was NUI Fellow in the Humanities 2001-03. He specialises in Irish social and political history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly the history of Irish country houses and the landed class; land and politics in independent Ireland; the working of the Irish Land Commission from 1881 to 1992; the revolutionary period 1916-23; and local history in Ireland. He teaches undergraduate and postgraduate modules related to all of these areas of specialism.

Terence is also Director of the Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates which sits within the History Department at Maynooth University.
 The establishment of the CSHIHE was directly linked to the academic and popular success of Terence’s first major monograph, The decline of the big house in Ireland (2001), which was described by Desmond FitzGerald, 29th Knight of Glin, and President of the Irish Georgian Society in Country Life as: ‘a brilliant and penetrating study of the reasons why the Republic of Ireland has so few surviving historic houses and collections.’ The book has since been regarded as pivotal in the shift of public and political attitudes towards the country house in Ireland. A report in the Irish Times of 16 July 2011, on the tenth anniversary of its publication, concluded: ‘It is a decade since Terence Dooley published The decline of the big house in Ireland, a work that will surely be seen as seminal in changing attitudes towards the topic. Since then the number of art and architectural students addressing aspects of the Irish country house and its history has grown considerably, not least thanks to the establishment of a Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates under the auspices of NUI Maynooth’s History Department.’
 
In 2003, Terence was commissioned by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Irish Georgian Society to write a report on the issues facing historic houses in Ireland and to make recommendations on how these issues could be addressed in the future. The report,
A future for Irish historic houses? A study of fifty houses (2003), highlighted the increasing risks faced by Irish historic houses in both private and public ownership, in particular the challenge of financing their conservation and of finding sustainable uses for them into the future. It emphasised that the preservation of all remaining historic houses, as well as their contents and their surroundings, was a national imperative. The report subsequently informed government policy and led to the establishment of the Irish Heritage Trust in 2006.  
 

Since its establishment, the CSHIHE has raised significant funding from a number of sources including an annual grant from the Office of Public Works (thus creating a unique public-private partnership), private benefactors, government departments and fundraising events such as golf classics. These funds have supported the refurbishment of Junior Infirmary on South Campus of Maynooth University as an office block for the CSHIHE; the day to day administration of the Centre (including a part-time administrative assistant); and marketing and promotion. However, most of the funding has been dedicated to educational research activity with a very strong emphasis on wider outcomes aimed at enhancing the public understanding of the complex history of the country house and landed estate and the promotion of an awareness and appreciation of Ireland’s built heritage. Thus, funding has been allocated to the organisation of the Annual Historic Houses of Ireland Conferences and numerous other seminars and workshops; exhibitions; the creation of databases; publications; the provision of five post-doctoral research fellowships; and numerous minor research projects carried out by undergraduate and postgraduate students of the History Department.    


The Annual Historic Houses of Ireland Conferences are an important part of the CSHIHE’s educational brief to provide a forum for debate and the dissemination of new heritage-related research findings. The conferences have attracted audiences from a broad cross section of Irish society and overseas including owners and managers of historic properties; heritage professionals; academics and students; specialists in architecture, landscape and conservation; secondary school teachers; and those with a general interest in the built heritage. The success of these occasions has been determined by the range of topics, the quality of speakers, and the mix of audiences.
Moreover, overseas speakers have generously facilitated tours for groups from the CSHIHE to Yorkshire, Paris, Moscow, Sicily and St Petersburgh. 
    


Other educational initiatives have included the development of modules at undergraduate level on the social, political, economic and cultural history of Irish country houses, their architectural evolution, their material culture and the creation (and destruction) of their surrounding landscapes. Teaching modules have also included visits to the UK which have enabled a comparative study of country houses in Ireland and Yorkshire in collaboration with the Yorkshire Country House Partnership.
  

The work of the CSHIHE is also focused upon linking the fruits of academic study with contemporary heritage issues at historic properties, and collaboration has been at the heart of these activities. The Historic Houses Association of Ireland (founded in 2009) has been a welcome partner, keen to show how many of their properties have educational assets that could be deployed in a number of ways. There is the acknowledgement that countless projects could be fashioned in relation to specific houses that would allow students and owners to work closely to the mutual benefit of both parties; the ‘Music in the Irish Country House Project’ and ‘Famine and the Country House and Estate’ being cases in point.    


In 2008 the establishment of the Archive and Research Centre at Castletown, under the joint auspices of the OPW and Maynooth University, has
presented further opportunities for those working in architecture, the decorative and fine arts, landscape, and conservation. Launched by President Mary McAleese, the Centre aims to facilitate the care and study of archives that deal with the history of Irish estates, their houses and inhabitants. It now houses about ten significant collections, including Desmond FitzGerald, 29th Knight of Glin’s furniture archive and many of his personal papers.
    

The CSHIHE, in association with the OPW, has also organised a very successful series of seminars at Castletown, addressing key issues relating to the management and understanding of the historic house in Ireland. These gatherings are aimed at those working across the historic house sector - managers, curators, academics, administrators, guides, education officers, marketing personnel, house staff and other heritage professionals.
 It has been widely acknowledged within the heritage sector that these events have been instrumental in refashioning the interpretation of the historic house in the UK, Ireland, and Europe.   

Moreover, these activities have now placed the CSHIHE at the forefront of European Country House studies, which recently has led to the establishment of a European Forum for the Study of Country Houses and Landed Estates with collaborating partners from the universities of Oxford, Bangor, Dundee, Queens University Belfast, and Groningen, as well as the YCHP.  This will expand over time.   
Such is the extent of its activities in the eight years since its inception that the Centre can fairly be said to be leading and determining the debate with regard to historic houses in Ireland, and, indeed, much further afield, both in academic terms (through research, teaching and publication), and in a more general political sense. The range of organisations, departments and individuals linked with the Centre through these diverse activities is testimony to the central tenet that those working across the entire spectrum of the built heritage sector cannot do things in isolation.

Academic research needs to demonstrate a public outcome in addition to its own intrinsic requirements; equally for those who work in the heritage sector their knowledge and understanding is best enhanced by taking advantage of such research. Moreover as the historic house grows in significance so too does its appeal as a visitor attraction. Consequently the collaborative efforts of scholars, owners, managers and other professionals can also translate into economic activity with a defined public value. 

Terence has supervised six PhDs to successful completion (five of which were funded by the IRCHSS/IRC). He is currently supervising another six PhD students. He has also supervised a large number of M.Litt and MA theses (fifteen of the latter have been published in the Maynooth Studies in Local History Series edited by Raymond Gillespie.) He has also mentored seven Post-doctoral Fellows. He sits on a number of public service committees and is a regular contributor on radio and television. 

Book

Year Publication
2014 Terence Dooley (2014) The decline and fall of the dukes of Leinster: Love, war, debt and madness. Dublin: Four Courts Press.
2010 Dooley, T. (2010) Ireland’s polemical past: views in Irish history in honour of R.V. Comerford. : UCD Press.
2007 Dooley, Terence (2007) The murders at Wildgoose Lodge: agrarian crime and punishment in pre-Famine Ireland. : Four Courts Press.
2007 Dooley, Terence (2007) The big houses and landed estates of Ireland: a research guide. : Four Courts Press.
2004 Dooley, Terence (2004) ‘The land for the people’: the land question in independent Ireland, 1923-73. : UCD Press.
2004 Dooley, Terence (2004) Inniskeen 1912-18: the political conversion of Bernard O’Rourke. : Four Courts Press.
2003 Dooley, Terence (2003) A future for Irish historic houses? a study of fifty houses (report commissioned by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, and the Irish Georgian Society, 2003, with foreword by An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, TD). : Irish Georgian Society.
2003 Dooley, Terence (2003) ‘The greatest of the Fenians’: John Devoy and Ireland. : Wolfhound Press.
2001 Dooley, Terence (2001) The decline of the big house in Ireland: a study of Irish landed families, 1860-1960. : Wolfhound Press.
2000 Dooley, Terence (2000) Sources for the history of landed estates in Ireland. : Irish Academic Press.
2000 Dooley, Terence (2000) The plight of Monaghan Protestants, 1912-26. : Four Courts Press.

Book Chapter

Year Publication
2015 Terence Dooley (2015) 'The fate of the country house in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries' In: Art and architecture of Ireland: vol. iv: architecture. New Haven and London : Yale University Press.
2015 Terence Dooley, Tony McCarthy (2015) 'The 1923 Land Act: some new perspectives' In: A formative decade: Ireland in the 1920s. Sallins : Irish Academic Press.
2015 Terence Dooley (2015) 'The destruction of the Irish country house' In: Lost Mansions: essays on the destruction of the country house. Basingstoke : Palgrave.
2014 Terence Dooley (2014) ''Land and people'' In: The Oxford handbook of modern Irish history. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
2014 Terence Dooley (2014) 'Till mu further orders: rules governing servants at Carton House in the mid-eighteenth century' In: Aspects of Irish aristocratic life: essays on the FitzGeralds and Carton House. Dublin : UCD Press.
2014 Terence Dooley (2014) 'The fair godfather as regards the estate: Henry Mallaby-Deeley and Carton 1922-37' In: Aspects of Irish aristocratic life: essays on the FitzGeralds and Carton House. Dublin : UCD Press.
2012 Terence Dooley (2012) '“Tombstones of a departed ascendancy”: the Irish country house since independence’' In: Looking ahead: the future of the country house: The Attingham Trust’s 60th Anniversary conference papers. London : Attingham.
2011 Terence Dooley (2011) '‘It was like a scene from the ball in Gone with the Wind’: social life at Castle Hyde, 1931-88’' In: The Irish Country House: its past, present and future. Dublin : Four Courts Press.
2010 Dooley, Terence (2010) '‘National patrimony and political perceptions of the Irish country house in post-independence Ireland’' In: Terence Dooley(Eds.). Ireland’s polemical past: views of Irish history in honour of R.V. Comerford. Dublin : UCD Press.
2006 Dooley, Terence (2006) ''IRA activity in County Kildare during the War of Independence'' In: Thomas McGrath and Tadhg O'Keefe(Eds.). Kildare: history and society. : Geography Publications.
2003 Dooley, Terence (2003) 'IRA veterans and land division in independent Ireland, 1923-48 (Dublin, 2003)' In: Fearghal McGarry(Eds.). Republicanism in mdern Ireland. Dublin : UCD Press.
2000 Dooley, Terence (2000) ''Landlords and the land question, 1879-1909'' In: Carla King(Eds.). Land, famine and culture in Ireland. Dublin : UCD Press.
1990 Dooley, Terence (1990) '‘Monaghan Protestants in a time of crisis, 1919-22’' In: Vincent Comerford, Jacqueline Hill, Colm Lennon(Eds.). Religion, conflict and coexistence in Ireland. Dublin : Gill & Macmillan.

Edited Book

Year Publication
2016 Terence Dooley, Christopher Ridgway, Maeve O'Riordan (Ed.). (2016) Women and the Country House. Dublin: Four Courts Press,
2016 Terence Dooley, Christopher Ridgway (Ed.). (2016) The country house and the Great War: Irish and British experiences. Dublin: Four Courts Press,
2014 Terence Dooley, Patrick Cosgrove, Karol Mullaney-Dignam (Ed.). (2014) Aspects of Irish aristocratic life: essays on the FitzGeralds and Carton House. Dublin: UCD Press,
2011 Terence Dooley, Christopher Ridgway (Ed.). (2011) The Irish country house: its past, present and future. Dublin: Four Courts Press,
2010 Terence Dooley (Ed.). (2010) Ireland's polemical past: views in Irish history in honour of R.V. Comerford. Dublin: UCD Press,

Peer Reviewed Journal

Year Publication
2009 Dooley, T. (2009) 'Copy of the marquis of Kildare's household book, 1758'. Archivium Hibernicum, xii :183-220. [Full-Text]
2009 Terence Dooley (2009) '‘Castle Hyde and the Great Famine, 1845-51’'. Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies Journal of T, 12 :54-71.
2009 Terence Dooley (2009) '‘Copy of the marquis of Kildare’s household book, 1758’'. Archivium Hibernicum, 62 :183-220.
2005 Terence Dooley (2005) '• ‘The mortgage papers of St. Patrick’s College Maynooth, 1871-1923’'. Archivium Hibernicum, 59 :106-235.
2004 Dooley, T (2004) 'Land and politics in independent Ireland, 1923-48: the case for reappraisal'. Irish Historical Studies, 34 :175-197.
2005 Terence Dooley (2005) 'The mortgage papers of St. Patricks College Maynooth, 1871-1923'. Archivium Hibernicum, lix :106-235. [Full-Text]
2004 Dooley, Terence (2004) 'Land and politics in independent Ireland, 1923-48: the case for a re-appraisal'. Irish Historical Studies, xxxiv :175-197. [Full-Text]
2003 Dooley, Terence (2003) 'Alexander 'Baby' Gray and his death at the Battle of Ashbourne April 1916'. RÍOCHT NA MIDHE, xiv :194-229. [Full-Text]
2001 Dooley, Terence (2001) 'A world turned upside down: a study of the socio-economic decline of the Meath nobility, 1870-1935'. RÍOCHT NA MIDHE, xii :188-228. [Full-Text]
1998 Dooley, Terence (1998) 'Landlords and mortgagees in late nineteenth century Ireland: the case of Lord Granard and the Trustees of Maynooth College, 1871-89'. JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY KILDARE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, xviii :612-625.

Other Journal

Year Publication
2009 Dooley, T. (2009) 'Castle Hyde and the Great Famine, 1845-51' THE IRISH ARCHITECTURAL AND DECORATIVE STUDIES JOURNAL , xii :54-71.
2003 Dr Terence A Dooley (2003) ''The burning of Ballynastragh, 9 March 1923'' Journal of the Wexford Historical Society, 19 :42-54.
1998 Dooley, Terence (1998) '‘County Monaghan, 1914-18: recruitment, the rise of Sinn Fein and the partition crisis’' CLOGHER RECORD, xvi :144-158.
1997 Dooley, Terence (1997) '‘The organisation of unionist opposition to Home Rule in counties Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal, 1885-1914’' CLOGHER RECORD, xvi :46-70.
1993 Dooley, Terence (1993) '‘From the Belfast boycott to the Boundary Commission: fears and hopes in County Monaghan, 1920-26’' CLOGHER RECORD, xv :90-106.

Conference Contribution

Year Publication
2009 (2009) National patrimony and perceptions of the Irish country house from independence to European Union Invited speaker, Irish Georgian Society Chapter, Limerick Limerick, .
2009 (2009) Educational policy and the preservation of the built heritage in Ireland, 1923-2009 CSHIHE/OPW Seminar Series Castletown House, .
2009 (2009) Collaborations and the Yorkshire Country House Partnership: the Irish experience The Third Policies, Issues and Research Seminar University of York, .
2009 (2009) Tombstones of a departed ascendancy: government attitudes towards the big house in post Castletown Winter Lecture Series, 2009-10 Castletown House, Celbridge, Co Kildare, .
2009 (2009) Education and the future of the Irish country house Seventh Annual Historic Houses of Ireland Conference NUI Maynooth, .
2009 (2009) Social life at Castle Hyde post-independence The Blackwater Valley - Historic Houses and Landscapes Conference Youghal, Co Cork, .

Book Review

Year Publication
2011 Dooley, T (2011) Frontiers of Violence: Conflict and Identity in Ulster and Upper Silesia, 1918-1922. CHICAGO: BREV

Reviews

Year Publication
2004 Dooley T. (2004) Land and politics in independent Ireland, 1923-48: The case for reappraisal. REV

Thesis

Year Publication
2004 Dooley, Terence (2004) ‘Alexander George Richey’. THES
2004 Dooley, Terence (2004) ‘Charles Hare Hemphill’. THES

Other

Year Publication
2003 Dooley, Terence (2003) ‘Landlords and the land system’. OTHER
2003 Dooley, Terence (2003) ‘Landed estates’. OTHER
2003 Dooley, Terence (2003) ‘Encumbered Estates Acts’. OTHER
Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2023) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.

Professional Associations

Description Function From / To
Monaghan County Museum Advisor to 1916 Commemorative Exhibition 01/01/2016 - 31/12/2016
Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government project ‘Survey of Designed Landscapes’. Member of steering committee 01/01/2004 -
Fáilte Ireland Member of steering committee, Failte Ireland Tourism Destination Development Plan, Kildare and Wicklow 01/01/2010 - 31/12/2015
Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government Author of report 'A future for Irish historic houses?' 01/01/2001 - 31/12/2003
Meath County Heritage Forum (Cultural Heritage and Education Group) Committee member 01/01/2006 -
Committee on Genealogy and Heraldry (National Library of Ireland). Board member 01/01/2010 - 31/12/2014
Kildare Fáilte Board member 01/01/2010 - 31/12/2014
OPW/ Maynooth University Archive and Research Centre, Castletown House, Committee member 01/01/2009 - 24/11/2016

Honors and Awards

Date Title Awarding Body
01/01/2001 NUI Fellow in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Committees

Committee Function From / To
Maynooth University Commemorations Committee Committee member -

Other Activities

Description
University of Limerick, External Examiner, undergraduate History, 2010-14
External Examiner, UCC, MA in Local History, 2015-
External PhD Examiner, Trinity College Dublin, Queen's University Belfast, University of Limerick, Dublin City University.