Alan Smyth
PhD Student
Biography
Alan graduated from UCD in 2007 with a BA (Intl) in History, following a year of study at UCLA. He went on to receive an MPhil in Modern Irish History from TCD in 2008, with a thesis on eighteenth-century weather recording. Alan is currently completing a PhD at Trinity under the supervision of David Dickson. He is a member of the interdisciplinary ‘Texts, Contexts, Cultures’ PhD programme, and is in receipt of funding from the PRTLI and the Trinity Long Room Hub.
Research:
‘A social and economic analysis of the Williamite war in Ireland (1689–91) and its aftermath’.
Alan’s doctoral research focuses on Ireland in the 1690s, specifically the social and economic impact of the Williamite war on the country. This involves the examination of issues such as the levels of destruction caused by military and rapparee activity; religious tensions between communities during the war; the impact on rent levels, landlords and ordinary tenants; and the subsequent rebuilding work and economic recovery, at both local and national level, in the aftermath of the conflict.
He continues to work on weather recording, environmental history and the scientific community in Ireland during the eighteenth century, particularly the work of John Rutty and the Physico-Historical society in Dublin.
Publications:
- ‘Journal of a tour to Dublin and the counties of Dublin and Meath in 1699’, eds Rolf Loeber, David Dickson and Alan Smyth, in Analecta Hibernica, no. 43 (2012, forthcoming).