Colin Barr

Biography & Research

Colin Barr is professor of modern Irish history in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame and the Thomas Moore and Judy Livingston Director of the Keough School's Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies.

Barr was born in Canada and raised in the United States. He holds a B.A. from Stonehill College and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, and has held academic appointments in Ireland, the United States and the United Kingdom. Barr has been a visiting fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and the University of Newcastle, Australia. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Barr’s work seeks to place the history of the island of Ireland and its peoples in the widest possible context, including that of the United Kingdom, the continent of Europe, the Roman Catholic Church and the global Irish Diaspora. He is the author or editor of a number of books, including "Ireland’s Empire: The Roman Catholic Church in the English-speaking World, 1829-1914" (Cambridge University Press, 2020), "The European Culture Wars in Ireland: The Callan Schools Affair, 1868-1881 "(University College Dublin Press, 2010), "Paul Cullen, John Henry Newman, and the Catholic University of Ireland, 1845-65" (University of Notre Dame Press, 2003), "Nation/Nazione: Irish Nationalism and the Italian Risorgimento" (co-edited with Michele Finelli and Anne O’Connor; University College Dublin Press, 2014), and "Religion and Greater Ireland: Christianity and Irish Global Networks," 1750-1950 (co-edited with Hilary M. Carey; McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015). Barr’s next book, "The Irish Pope: Paul Cullen," 1803-1878, will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2023. Future projects include "O’Connell’s Heirs," a study of Irish Catholic democracy; and "Imperial Women: Nuns and the Making of Greater Ireland," a global history of Irish women religious.

Courses

• The Making of Modern Ireland (undergraduate course in Irish studies)
• The Northern Ireland Troubles (undergraduate course in Irish studies)
• Ireland's Troubles: Politics, Violence, and History (university seminar)

In the Media

• Muslim experience of living in Ireland heard at forum (Raidió Teilifís Éireann)