Ireland’s history stretches back thousands of years — from the first settlers who built Newgrange before the pyramids rose in Egypt, to the ordinary families who survived the Famine and crossed oceans in search of a new life. It is a history of breathtaking beauty and heartbreaking loss, of rebellion and resilience, of ancient languages and enduring traditions. And it is a history that, without the dedicated people who research, preserve, and share it, could so easily slip away.
Fortunately, Ireland has never been short of passionate storytellers. Today, a new generation of heritage researchers is bringing Irish history to wider audiences than ever before — through podcasts, books, archives, and social media. Whether you are tracing your own Irish roots or simply captivated by this extraordinary island, these are the researchers and historians you need to know about.
Fin Dwyer — The Irish History Podcast
If you have ever found yourself falling down a rabbit hole of Irish history late at night, there is a good chance Fin Dwyer is responsible. A historian, author, and podcaster born in Castlecomer, County Kilkenny, Fin launched the Irish History Podcast in 2010 — and fifteen years later, with over 400 episodes, it remains one of the longest-running and most-loved Irish podcasts in the world.
What makes Fin’s work remarkable is his gift for storytelling. Rather than delivering dry academic lectures, he brings history to life through character-driven narratives that follow real people through Ireland’s defining moments — the Norman invasion, the Plantation, the 1798 Rebellion, the Famine, the War of Independence. The Irish Times has called him a “digital bard”, and it is a fitting description for someone who has made Irish history feel urgent, personal, and alive for a global audience.
In 2024, Fin expanded his reach by joining forces with historian Damian Shiels to launch Transatlantic: An Irish American History Podcast, exploring the centuries-long relationship between Ireland and North America. The show covers everything from the earliest Irish arrivals in the Americas to the pivotal role Irish emigrants played in shaping the United States. For anyone with Irish ancestry — or simply an interest in how Ireland shaped the world — this podcast is essential listening. Find it at irishhistorypodcast.ie.
Damian Shiels — Irish Military History and the Diaspora
Damian Shiels holds a PhD from Northumbria University and has spent his career uncovering one of the most overlooked chapters in Irish history: the Irish experience of the American Civil War. His website, Irish in the American Civil War, launched in 2010, became the definitive online resource for anyone researching Irish ancestors who fought — on both sides — during that defining conflict.
His books, including The Irish in the American Civil War (History Press, 2014), The Forgotten Irish: Irish Emigrant Experiences in America (History Press, 2017), and most recently Green and Blue: Irish Americans in the Union Military, 1861–1865, give voice to hundreds of thousands of Irish men and women whose stories might otherwise have been lost entirely. Damian was also part of the National Museum of Ireland team behind the acclaimed Soldiers and Chiefs military history exhibition.
What distinguishes Damian’s work is his commitment to making complex archival research accessible to ordinary people — particularly those tracing their own family histories. His meticulous approach to sources, combined with a genuine empathy for the emigrants he writes about, makes his work both scholarly and deeply moving. Find him at irishamericancivilwar.com.
Catriona Crowe — Bringing the Archives to Life
If one person can be credited with opening Ireland’s past to its people, it is Catriona Crowe. A senior archivist who spent four decades at the National Archives of Ireland, Catriona was the driving force behind the online publication of the 1901 and 1911 Irish Census returns — a project widely recognised as the most successful online public history initiative ever undertaken in Ireland.
Before Catriona’s Census Online Project, tracing Irish ancestors required expensive visits to archives and specialist knowledge. After it, millions of people worldwide could simply type in a name and find their great-grandparents staring back at them from a century-old page. The project transformed Irish genealogy research overnight and gave the Irish diaspora — scattered across Britain, America, Australia, and beyond — a direct connection to the families they had always wondered about.
Catriona’s work extended beyond digitisation. Her discovery of 2,000 files relating to Irish children adopted in the United States between 1948 and 1974 eventually led the Irish government to establish a contact register for adopted children and birth parents — a real-world policy consequence of archival research. Elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 2012, she is a former President of the Women’s History Association of Ireland and co-hosts the What Were We Like podcast alongside Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, exploring hidden stories of modern Irish history.
Professor Diarmaid Ferriter — Ireland’s Most Public Historian
There are historians, and then there is Diarmaid Ferriter. Professor of Modern Irish History at University College Dublin, weekly columnist for the Irish Times, broadcaster, and author of fourteen books, Ferriter has done more than almost anyone alive to bring rigorous, evidence-based Irish history to mainstream audiences.
His books span the full arc of modern Ireland — from A Nation and not a Rabble: The Irish Revolution 1913–23 to The Border, exploring the partition of Ireland, to his most recent work, The Revelation of Ireland: 1995–2020 (2024), a sweeping examination of the Republic’s most transformative quarter-century. What Ferriter does consistently, across all his writing and broadcasting, is refuse to let Ireland’s story be simplified. He takes on the comfortable myths as readily as the hard truths, always insisting that the full picture is more interesting than the sanitised version.
His podcast What Were We Like, co-hosted with archivist Catriona Crowe and broadcast on RTÉ, brings this same quality of thinking to a conversational format — making it accessible to anyone curious about how modern Ireland came to be. Elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2019, Ferriter has been described as “the most consistently innovative interpreter of the modern Irish historical experience.” Find his columns at irishtimes.com.
Why Their Work Matters
Ireland’s history is not simply a matter of academic interest. It is alive in the place names and surnames, in the songs sung at sessions in Connacht pubs, in the letters folded and kept safe in American attic boxes, in the DNA of millions of people across four continents who carry Ireland with them without always knowing why. The researchers celebrated here are doing the essential work of translating that history — making it legible, emotional, and real for people who might never set foot in an archive but who feel Ireland pulling at something deep inside them.
For the Love Ireland community, their work is both a gift and an invitation. A gift because it means that the stories we love — the ancient monastic settlements, the famine roads, the rebel leaders, the emigrants who made new lives far from home — are being preserved and told with care. An invitation because these researchers consistently open doors: into archives, into podcasts, into books, into the kind of curiosity that turns a casual interest in Ireland into a lifelong passion.
If you want to explore further, start with the origins of Irish surnames, or dive into the ancient Irish laws that shaped how communities lived for centuries. And for a glimpse of the spiritual heart of early Irish scholarship, explore the traditions passed down through generations of Irish culture.
Know a heritage researcher or Irish historian we should feature? Tell us in the comments — we are always looking to celebrate the people who love Ireland’s story as much as we do.
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Ireland’s past is one of the richest, most complex, and most emotionally resonant histories in the world. Thanks to the researchers and storytellers profiled here, it has never been more accessible. Whether you are discovering your roots, deepening a lifelong love of Ireland, or simply looking for stories that remind you why this island holds such a unique place in the world’s imagination — these are the people lighting the way.
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