Robert O’Sullivan, a postdoctoral research associate at the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, has been awarded the Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland’s 2025 essay prize.
The annual award, which is open to early-career researchers in all disciplines, recognizes a piece of scholarship that makes the greatest contribution to the study of nineteenth-century Ireland, that demonstrates an awareness of issues in related disciplines inside and outside of Irish studies more broadly, and that demonstrates the excellence of scholarship on nineteenth-century Ireland to the wider scholarly community.
O’Sullivan is a political and social historian of nineteenth-century American and Irish history. He received the essay prize for his article, “The Irish-American press, the Franco-Prussian War and Irish-American identity in the postbellum United States, 1870–71,” published in Irish Historical Studies.
The society’s committee commented on his article:
The judges were very impressed by the article’s innovative transnational approach and what it reveals about how Irish American actors used international events to articulate political positions and shape diasporic identity. Committee members also commended the clarity of its argument and the nuanced, effective use of evidence to support an original contribution to Irish and diasporic history.
O’Sullivan earned his doctorate at the University of Cambridge and joined the Keough-Naughton Institute as a postdoc in January 2025. He is currently working on his first book — a monograph that explores the writings and activism of a series of Irish-American newspaper editors and their readers, and examines how they contributed to the process through which Irish immigrant, diasporic identity took root in the United States by engaging with political developments across the globe.
Read the Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland’s announcement.