Qualification
Master Of Arts Degree
CAO/MU Apply code
MHP66
Award Type and NFQ level
Taught Masters (9)
Study Mode
Full time
Closing Date
30 June 2025

Overview

The MA in European History is offered as a one-year full-time programme. It introduces participants to wider debates in European history and prepares them to complete a minor research thesis in conjunction with taught modules. The breakdown for this programme is 60 credits relating to taught modules and 30 credits relating to the thesis.

Participants are offered a mix of required and optional modules. Compulsory taught modules familiarise participants with significant contributions to the field and major historiographical debates in early modern and modern European history from 1500 to the present, currently including the history of genocide, the two World Wars and cultural history. Participants may also choose optional modules from other taught MAs within the Department and may undertake language courses.

Participants commence independent consultations with their supervisor on a proposed thesis during the first semester, concentrating on research and writing for the minor thesis in the second. A total of 30 credits are awarded for the thesis, with an option to conduct additional independent readings guided by their supervisor.

MA participants are also encouraged to collaborate with fellow postgraduates and departmental staff at social occasions, seminars and conferences. There are limited opportunities for well-qualified candidates to act as a tutor in the undergraduate programme, enabling them to gain valuable teaching experience.

Assessment is through a mix of written assignments, in-class participation and presentations. Participants also develop an extended thesis on a topic agreed upon with the supervisor and subject to departmental guidelines. For the thesis, emphasis is on independent study in close consultation with the supervisor. Taught modules are conducted during the week according to the regular student timetable.


Course structure

Duration: 1 year full-time

The MA in European History introduces students to vital debates in European history while developing their critical research and writing skills. Students are offered a combination of compulsory and optional modules, and must also write a minor research thesis. Compulsory taught modules familiarise students with significant contributions to the field, introduce them to the nature of postgraduate research, and prepare them to write the thesis. These are complemented by optional modules drawn from this and other MA programmes within the Department. Students are assigned a thesis supervisor in the first semester and must complete their thesis alongside their coursework throughout the year.

Disclaimer
The modules below are indicative of the content associated with this course of study.
The modules are subject to change as the curriculum is revised and reviewed annually.

Careers after Grad Degree

A taught Masters degree in European History equips students with a sound basis for pursuing an advanced research degree (e.g. PhD), or careers in education, journalism, the civil service, academia, research and arts administration, both in Ireland and the European Union more generally. Many have gone on to pursue careers or further education in the arts and heritage sector, in galleries, libraries, museums, archives and cultural institutions. This qualification can also be of use in diplomatic service, politics, law, public relations and public administration including with EU bodies.

Entry Requirements

Students who have an honours degree with a 1:1, a 2.(i) or high 2.(ii) grade in History before the programme begins will be offered a place. Other applications will be considered depending on available spaces. Applicants must have a recognised primary degree which is considered equivalent to Irish university primary degree level.

Minimum English language requirements:
Applicants for whom English is not their first language are required to demonstrate their proficiency in English in order to benefit fully from their course of study. For information about English language tests accepted and required scores, please see here. The requirements specified are applicable for both EU and International applicants.

Maynooth University's TOEFL code is 8850


Research Interests

Maynooth University is one of the principal centres of research into the history of Ireland. The department offers direction of research in every period of Irish history, including local history. The research specialisations of staff are as follows:

  • Dr Hussam Ahmed: specialises in the social and cultural history of the modern Middle East. Other research interests include Arab intellectual history, minorities in the Middle East, colonialism, statecraft and institution building.
  • Professor Terence A Dooley: specialises in Irish social and political history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly the land question, the fortunes of great houses and estates, the work of the Irish Land Commission and the local politics of the revolutionary period. Has expertise also in policy matters concerning heritage and restoration.
  • Dr Alison FitzGerald: specialises in Irish design history and material culture, in particular the study of Irish goldsmiths, jewellers and allied traders.
  • Dr David Lederer: Global history, Renaissance and Reformation, early modern Germany,history of emotions, gender studies.
  • Professor Marian Lyons: Irish migration to Europe and migrant experiences on the continent in the early modern period, with particular emphasis on France and specifically Jacobite migrants in Paris, c.1690–c.1730. Franco-Irish diplomatic and political relations in the sixteenth century. Ireland’s trading associations with France in the early modern era. Thomas Arthur, MD, of Limerick (1590–1675). The Kildare dynasty in fifteenth and sixteenth-century Ireland. Women in late medieval and early modern Ireland.
  • Dr Dympna McLoughlin: specialises in gender and class nineteenth century Ireland, poverty and subsistence nineteenth century Ireland, emigration and the poor law, children, nineteenth century Ireland.
  • Dr JoAnne Mancini: history of the United States and its colonial antecedents, intersections of American and world history.
  • Dr David Murphy: specialises in military history with a particular interest in Irish regiments in British and continental service, the Crimean War, and French military archives.
  • Dr John Paul Newman: specialises in Balkan and Yugoslav cultural history with a particular interest in the First World War and its legacy in the region.
  • Professor Thomas O’Connor: Irish in Europe 1550–1800, Jansenism in 17th century, Roman Inquisition seventeenth century, political thought 1550–1700.
  • Dr Michael Potterton: specialises in the archaeology and history of Ireland from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, especially urban and rural landscapes, settlement and society.
  • Dr Jennifer Redmond: specialises in Irish emigration to England in the twentieth century, gender and sexual politics, demography and population change, modern Ireland, women and education, Irish women in the labour force, digital humanities.
  • Professor Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses: lectures in Spanish and Portuguese twentieth century history, the First World War and the development of fascism, and Europe’s colonial empires in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Research interests are centred on the First World War and Twentieth-century Portugal and its colonies.
  • Professor Ian Speller: research interests are in the field of military history and strategic studies, focusing in particular on maritime strategy and naval policy, the history of the Royal Navy and of expeditionary operations in the twentieth century.
  • Dr Jonathan Wright: a historian of Ireland and the British world in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, his research addresses two core areas: politics and political cultures in the age of revolution and reform (c.1789-1832), and British and Irish imperial history (with a particular emphasis on the Ulster experience of empire).


How to apply

Online application only. To make an application please click here.

To apply for your chosen postgraduate study at Maynooth University, please ensure you have the following documents to make an application:

  • Evidence of your primary degree
  • Academic transcripts
  • A copy of your passport
  • A personal statement

Applicants for whom English is not their first language are required to demonstrate their proficiency in English in order to benefit fully from their course of study. For information about English language tests accepted and required scores, please see here. The requirements specified are applicable for both EU and International applicants.

Got a question about this course?

Programme Director Prof Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses

Tel +353 (0)1 708 3387

Email Filipe.deMeneses@mu.ie

Website https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/history
Address Department of History