On October 21, 2025 the Institute of Historical Research is holding a remote event as part of the Digital History Event Series. Bronagh McShane (Trinity College Dublin) will present their paper “Digitising Death: Gender, Genealogy, and the Experimental Recovery of Women’s Histories in Early Modern Ireland.” All welcome- this event is free to attend, but registration in advance is required.
This paper explores how digital experimentation can reshape our understanding of early modern Irish history by enabling new ways to recover women’s lives from fragmented and underused sources. It focuses on a remarkable but largely overlooked dataset: the Funeral Entries held in the Genealogical Office of the National Library of Ireland. Compiled by the Ulster King of Arms between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, these manuscripts record death dates, familial ties, and social affiliations across Ireland. Preliminary analysis reveals that nearly 38% of entries concern women, an unusually high proportion for early modern sources.
