Professor John Wardell and university history in Ireland in the early twentieth century

Abstract:A star graduate of the Trinity College Dublin (TCD) history honours programme, John Wardell, a young man from County Limerick, was appointed lecturer in history at his alma mater in 1902 and promoted to full professor two years later. Until illness forced his resignation in 1911, Wardell attempted to modernise and expand the history programme—and pioneered the introduction of Irish content—at the college with the help of a handful of colleagues. His vision of what constituted valuable Irish history was informed by his background: generations of ancestors had fought for the Crown throughout the Empire and he was obsessed with his family history. By rediscovering Wardell, we are offered a revealing glimpse into the mindset of a young Irish Protestant from a landholding background during a tumultuous period for his class. In doing so, we also gain insight into a formative period in Irish historiography when debates surrounding ‘national’ history and what to consider valuable source material intensified.