Dr. Diarmuid Whelan was an Irish

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

 academic in the history department of UCC. Born in Cork, he studied at Christian Brothers College, Cork

Christian Brothers College, Cork

Christian Brothers College, Cork is a fee-paying Catholic school under the trusteeship of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust in Cork, Ireland....

 and UCC. He wrote his doctoral thesis on Conor Cruise O'Brien

Conor Cruise O'Brien

Conor Cruise O'Brien often nicknamed "The Cruiser", was an Irish politician, writer, historian and academic. Although his opinion on the role of Britain in Northern Ireland changed over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, he always acknowledge values of, as he saw, the two irreconcilable traditions...

.

Besides his academic work, he had also been a sculptor and a skipper on transatlantic vessels. He worked in the National Library of Ireland

National Library of Ireland

The National Library of Ireland is Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The Minister for Arts, Sport & Tourism is the member of the Irish Government responsible for the library....

 archiving the papers of Owen Sheehy-Skeffington

Owen Sheehy-Skeffington

Dr. Owen Lancelot Sheehy-Skeffington was an Irish university lecturer and Senator.- Early life :Sheehy-Skeffington was brought up in Dublin, Ireland. His father, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, was a pacifist and nationalist whose murder by Captain J.C. Bowen-Colthurst in 1916 during the week of the...

 where he discovered a manuscript of Peter Tyrrell

Peter Tyrrell

Peter Tyrrell , was an Irish author and former inmate of St Joseph's Industrial School, Letterfrack, an institution run by the Christian Brothers.-Early life:...

 which he edited and had published as Founded on Fear:Letterfrack

St Joseph's Industrial School, Letterfrack

St Joseph's Industrial School was an industrial school for young boys in Letterfrack, County Galway, Ireland. The school was opened in 1887, and ran by the Congregation of Christian Brothers....

, War and Exile. He revealed that the Ryan Commission

Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse

The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse is one of a range of measures introduced by the Irish Government to investigate the extent and effects of abuse on children from 1936 onwards. It is commonly known in Ireland as the Ryan Commission , after its chair, Justice Seán Ryan...

 report had used the pseudonym 'Noah Kitterick' to refer to Peter Tyrrell.

He wrote Conor Cruise O'Brien: The Coldest Eye, a biography of Conor Cruise O'Brien

Conor Cruise O'Brien

Conor Cruise O'Brien often nicknamed "The Cruiser", was an Irish politician, writer, historian and academic. Although his opinion on the role of Britain in Northern Ireland changed over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, he always acknowledge values of, as he saw, the two irreconcilable traditions...

.

His research interests were in Intellectual History, Irish political history, US Foreign policy, Decolonisation, Terrorism and International relations.

Books

• Founded on Fear, Letterfrack, War and Exile, (Ed.), Irish Academic Press, reprinted by Transworld
• Gerald Goldberg: A tribute, Diarmuid Whelan (Ed.), Dermot Keogh (Ed.), June 2008, Mercier
• Conor Cruise O'Brien: The Coldest Eye, May 2009, Irish Academic Press