Poacher turned gamekeeper:
Gerald Boland, the IRA and Nazi spies, 1939-1945
Professor Stephen Kelly
4pm Thursday 31 March 2022: K114 (Newman)
As a founding father of Fianna Fáil and an Irish government minister for almost twenty years, Gerald Boland (1885-1973) played a central role during the formative years of the emerging Independent Irish state. However, to date, Boland’s prominent – and occasionally controversial – period in the public limelight has been generally ignored. This talk addresses this historical anomaly, specifically by focusing on Boland’s period as minister for justice during the Second World War and his ruthless crushing of the IRA.
Stephen Kelly is Professor of Modern Irish History and Head of the Department of History, Politics and International Relations, Liverpool Hope University. He has published extensively in the field of modern Irish history and British-Irish relations, including Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Party and the Northern Ireland conflict, 1975-1990 (2021); ‘A failed political entity’: Charles Haughey and the Northern Ireland question, 1945-1992 (2016) and Fianna Fáil, partition and Northern Ireland, 1926-1971 (2013). He is currently working on a biography of Gerald Boland.