Margaret MacCurtain

Margaret MacCurtain (born 1929) is an Irish historian, writer, and educator.

Career

Margaret MacCurtain is a native of County Cork, Ireland. She is the daughter of Sean and Ann Mac Curtáin. She received her Bachelors of Arts degree from University College Cork (UCC) prior to joining the Dominican Order. She entered the Dominican Order in 1950 and held several positions including serving as the Prioress of Sion Hill Convent. In 1964, she earned her PhD in History and became a lecturer in the Irish History Department of University College Dublin from 1964 to 1994. She was also a Professor at the School of Irish Studies, Dublin, from 1972 to 1989. She held the Burns Chair of Irish Studies at Boston College from 1992 to 1993. She was awarded the Eire Society of Boston Gold Medal in 1993 for her writings in Irish Woman’s History.

She has been very active in several political and social causes. She chaired the National Archives Advisory Council from 1997–2002 and contributed to the Treoir 2000 report on the state of the Irish language at the end of the twenty-century.

Selected work

• The Birth of Modern Ireland” (1969)
• Tudor and Stuart Ireland” (1972)
• Women and Irish Society: The Historical Dimension” (1978)
• The Gill History of Ireland series” (1980)
• Women in Early Modern Ireland” (1992)
• From Dublin to New Orleans: Nora and Alice's Journey to America 1888” (1995)
• Grace Gifford Plunkett and Irish Freedom” (2000)
• Ariadne's Threads: Writing Women into Irish History’ (2009)