It is with great pleasure and immense excitement that we publish the first annual Postgraduate History Journal. The selected papers represent a cross-section of a conference that has grown in the past four years to an international interdisciplinary conference covering a broad range of the most fascinating and innovative research being conducted in their fields today. The Journal is the product of research and initiative entirely on the postgraduate level with contributors and the editorial review board consisting of entirely postgraduates allowing a forum for us whilst ensuring that it maintains a high level of quality.
I would like to thank the members of the editorial and selection committee for all their hard work in the creation and maintenance of this journal. I would like to give a special thanks to Gearoid O’Rourke for all of his support in the creation of our online material throughout the production of this Journal and in the lead up to the conference itself. I would also like to express our gratitude to the members of the conference organising committees at both UCD and TCD for their forward thinking ideas on how to expand this conference to the next level and thus to allow for the publication of such a fascinating journal. Special thanks to the Department of History, School of Histories and Humanities, TCD and the School of History and Archives, UCD for their support, both in the creation of this conference as well as financially, Dr Anne Dolan and Dr Susannah Riordan for helping in the initial organisational steps and for guidance throughout. We are particularly grateful to the Vice Provost Patrick Prendergast for the great honour of launching this journal for us.
Kelly Thompson
