Leigh-Ann Coffey 

Ph.D. Candidate and Teaching Fellow
Department of History, Queen's University (Canada)

E-mail: leigh-ann.coffey@queensu.ca
Phone: 613-533-6000, ext: 74378
Fax: 613-533-6298
Office: Watson Hall Room 301

Education:

M.A., National University of Ireland Maynooth, 2004
B.A. (Hon.), University of Toronto, 2003 

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About

My areas of study are Ireland, Great Britain and the British Empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  I am particularly interested in the social and political upheavals which occurred in Ireland during this period, and my previous research has examined the connections between agrarian unrest and sectarian violence.

My current research considers issues of identity and allegiances in the aftermath of the Irish revolution through an examination of the experiences of southern Irish loyalists.  Working from a variety of sources, my doctoral dissertation reconstructs the communal narratives of southern loyalists and considers how they attempted to reconcile their British and Irish allegiances through an imperial identity.  I am currently working under the supervision of Professor Donald Akenson, with additional guidance from Professor David Wilson (University of Toronto).

Courses Taught

HIST 291: Ireland, 1848 to Present (Lecture)
HIST 390: Ireland, 1798 to Present (Seminar)

Recent Publications

Books

The Planters of Luggacurran, Co. Laois: A Protestant Community, 1879-1927 (Dublin: Four Courts Press 2006)

Book Chapters

"Loyalism in Transition: Southern Loyalists and the Irish Free State, 1921-1937" in Ulster Loyalism After the Good Friday Agreement, eds. James W. McAuley and Graham Spencer (Houndsmills Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan 2011), 22-36

Selected Conference Papers:

"The Migration of Southern Irish Loyalists to Canada", presented at the Canadian Historical Association annual conference, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton (May-June 2011)

"Abandoned Subjects: Loyalists in the Irish Free State, 1921-1937", presented at the Britishness in a Global Context: the View from Abroad conference, University of Huddersfield, U.K. (June 2008)

"The Luggacurran Conflict in a Transatlantic Context," presented at the Canadian Association of Irish Studies annual conference, National University of Ireland Maynooth (June 2005)