Upcoming lecture by renowned Kilkenny historian

Kilkenny historian Dr Gerry O’ Keefe will be giving a lecture at the Rothe House on Wednesday, November 15. 

The lecture, which is organised by the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, is entitled ‘Kilkenny’s East India Company Soldiers, 1830-1860’.

Dr O’Keeffe’s talk will discuss the 714 Kilkenny men who served in the British East India Company’s three presidential armies in India in the period 1830-60. 

Discussion will primarily focus on rank-and-file soldiers (those occupying Kilkenny's least advantaged social echelons) serving in the period 1830-60. 

This will be set in a wider imperial context which saw Irishmen drawn from every Irish county comprise the largest proportion of the Company’s European troops in South Asia during this period. 

A prosopographical approach will be taken, blending a quantitative analysis with case studies, where possible. Finally, the talk will also seek to gauge the response of the contemporary nationalist Irish press (O'Connellite and Radical) to this phenomenon.

Dr O’Keeffe is an imperial historian and native of Kilkenny. 

Awarded his doctorate in history in 2022 through Maynooth University, his research explores the military and social histories of Irish soldiers (and their wider families) serving in the British East India Company's Indian armies in the middle third of the nineteenth century. 

In tandem with his research work, Gerry continues to deliver numerous archaeological field walks, history lectures and tutorials, heritage presentations and tours.  

His work is to be published as part of the edited collection of the Society for the Study of 19th century Ireland. The author of three research articles in the Old Kilkenny Review, he is preparing to have his current PhD research published as a monograph.

The event is organised by Kilkenny Archaeological Society and will begin at 8pm.

Admission costs €8 for members and €10 for non-members.