Dr Deirdre Foley

Dr Deirdre Foley is a historian of modern Ireland with a particular interest in the legal and social status of women during the twentieth century.

A former Roy Foster Irish Government Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, Deirdre subsequently held two Research Ireland postdoctoral awards – the Government of Ireland and the Enterprise fellowships – at University College Cork and Trinity College Dublin. Her first monograph, The Status of Women in Ireland, c. 1922-1981, is under contract with Liverpool University Press. She is a member of the Irish Association of Professional Historians and Membership Secretary for the Women’s History Association of Ireland. Deirdre has engaged extensively with the media and public on issues of historic significance, particularly the marriage bar and women’s employment rights.

Currently, Deirdre is Principal Investigator of the Research Ireland Pathway Project, 'TÚS: Pregnancy and Giving Birth in Ireland, 1950-2020'.
TÚS (‘beginning’ in Irish) is the first comprehensive historical investigation into the experience of pregnancy and childbirth in the Republic of Ireland, 1950-1990. This is the most transformative period on record in terms of where, when, and how often women gave birth. State provision of maternity care expanded dramatically in this period, but the impact of this remains under-examined by historians.
TÚS recovers and highlights women’s voices and experiences of pregnancy and childbirth, from detection to delivery. As part of the TÚS project team, PhD student Ella Armstrong is researching obstetric education and practice in the same period.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

‘The Marriage Bar in Irish Life’ in Humanities, vol. 1, no. 7 (2026). https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/15/7/92
(with Jennifer Redmond and Judith Harford) ‘Marriage bars and motherhood: an oral history case study of modern Ireland’ in Women’s History Review, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2026.2679926
'Women and girls in Jacob’s biscuit factory, c. 1911-1977' in Saothar: Journal of Irish Labour History, vol. 50 (2025).
‘The Irish family, marital breakdown and the Josie Airey case, c. 1974-1981’, The History of the Family, vol. 29, no. 1 (2024), pp. 15–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/1081602X.2024.2321126
‘“Their proper place”: women, work and the marriage bar in independent Ireland, c. 1924- 1973’, Social History, vol. 47, no. 1 (2022).
https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2022.2009692
‘“Too Many Children?” Family Planning and Humanae Vitae in Dublin, 1960–72’, Irish Economic and Social History, vol. 46, pp. 142–160 (2019).
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26871996

Book Chapters

(with Susie Deedigan) ‘“Sit down all you silly women”: forming the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, 1996-1998’ in Ruth Davidson, Farah Hussain, Lyndsey Jenkins and Anna Muggeridge (eds.), Women, Power and Politics in Britain, 1945-1997 (Oxford University Press, 2026) (in press).
‘Women’s groups and the Catholic Church in the Republic of Ireland, c. 1937-2018’ in Conor Morrissey and Fionnuala Walsh (eds.), Godlessness in Ireland: atheism, anticlericalism, and hostility to religion since 1750 (Liverpool University Press, 2026) (in press).
'Liam Cosgrave' in Iain Dale (ed.), The Taoiseach: A Century of Political Leadership (Swift Press, 2025).
'"Provided the family is not neglected": women's work, maternity leave and childcare in Ireland, c. 1969-1981', in Jennifer Redmond and Mary McAuliffe (eds.), The Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Modern Ireland: A Reader (Four Courts Press, 2024).
‘The Marriage Bar & Working Women, 1922-1972’ in John Cunningham, Francis Devine & Sonja Tiernan (eds.), Labour History in Irish History: Essays celebrating fifty years of the Irish Labour History Society (Umiskin Press, 2023).
‘Giving Birth in 1960s Dublin’ in Salvador Ryan (ed.), Birth and the Irish: A Miscellany (Wordwell, 2021).

Media Engagement

‘How did the housewives of rural Ireland make money?’, RTÉ Brainstorm, June 2025. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0627/1509408-rural-ireland-housewives-homespun-movement-economic-productivity/
(with Jennifer Redmond and Judith Harford) ‘How did the marriage bar affect Irish women?’, RTÉ Brainstorm, August 2024. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2024/0829/1395097-ireland-marriage-bar-women-careers-public-service/
‘How Irish State legislation restricted women in the workplace’, RTÉ Brainstorm, February 2024.
https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2024/0201/1429663-ireland-conditions-of-employment-act-1936-women-workplace-discrimination-/
I have featured on the following TV documentaries:
Altraí na hÉireann / Ireland’s Nurses (TG4, 2026).
Ballroom Blitz: Irish Showbands (RTÉ One, 2024).
Croíthe Radacacha / Radical Hearts (TG4, 2023).
The Way We Were (RTÉ One, 2020).

Books Reviews/Review Articles:

‘Irish Social History: Personal Reflections on the Present and Future’, Irish Economic and Social History, vol. 51, no. 1 (2024).
https://doi.org/10.1177/03324893241277762
Review of Haughey by Gary Murphy, Irish Political Studies, vol. 38, no. 4 (2023).https://doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2023.2223380
‘Review article: Getting in, and out, of marriage in modern Ireland’, Studia Hibernica, vol. 47, no. 1 (2021).
https://doi.org/10.3828/sh.2021.7
Review of ‘HerStory: Ireland’s Epic Women’ History Ireland, vol, 28, 2020.
https://historyireland.com/herstory-irelands-epic-women/