Professor Alvin Jackson (FBA, FRSE, HonMRIA, MAE, FRHistS, DArts (hc), MA, DPhil)

Richard Lodge Professor of History

Biography

Background

I have lived and worked in Edinburgh as Sir Richard Lodge Professor of History since 2005.  Before arriving here, I studied Modern History at Corpus Christi College and Nuffield College, Oxford, where I completed a D.Phil. in 1986. I was a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellow between 1986 and 1988, and was Lecturer in Modern History at University College Dublin between 1988 and 1991:  in 1991 I  moved to Queen’s University Belfast, where I was Professor of Modern Irish History.  In 1996-7 I began a close and ongoing connection with several US universities when I spent an academic year as John Burns Visiting Professor at Boston College, Massachusetts.   

I was Head of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Edinburgh for nearly four years (2010-13) and more recently served as Dean of Research and Depute Head of the College of Humanities and Social Science.

My research has been supported by four major national awards – a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellowship (1986), a British Academy Research Readership in the Humanities (2000), a British Academy-Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship (2009) and a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2015). 

I am a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Member of the Academia Europaea.  In 2022 I was awarded an honorary doctorate by University College Dublin.  I am actively involved in the committee work of the British Academy, as well as that of the RSE and RIA.  

I have been invited to present my research to academic and wider audiences in 17 countries worldwide.   I have also given many keynote and named lectures, including the Royal Irish Academy discourse (RIA, Dublin), the Lowell lecture (Boston College, Massachusetts), the Flatley lecture (BC, Mass.), the Fund for Irish Studies lecture (Princeton, New Jersey), the D.B. Quinn lecture (University of Liverpool), the J.C. Beckett lecture (Queen's University Belfast), and the Paul Addison lecture (Edinburgh).   I have been invited to speak by the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, at his Machnamh 100 seminar series:  in addition I have received invitations to speak from (inter alia) the British and Irish Parliamentary Association, the Constitution Unit in the British Cabinet Office, the British-Irish Association, and from the National Theatre, London.  

I have contributed extensively to history programmes on television.  This includes recent work as historical consultant and contributor to 'Edward Carson and the fall of Oscar Wilde' (BBC television: 2020), 'The road to partition' (BBC: 2021), and 'Union with David Olusoga' (BBC: 2023).  I have contributed interviews to (inter alia) '1916: the Irish Rebellion' (RTE television: 2016), 'The Irish revolution' (RTE:  2019), 'Civil war' (RTE: 2022), 'From that small island: the story of the Irish' (RTE: 2025).  I wrote and presented the three part BBC television series, 'The prime ministers', which was first broadcast in March-April 2023.  

In the course of my career I have supervised over 20 doctoral students and many MSc, MLitt and MPhil students.

 

Responsibilities & affiliations

  • Fellow of the British Academy (2024)
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2021)
  • Member of the Academia Europaea (2015)
  • Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy (2014)
  • Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (1992)

Undergraduate teaching

Honours teaching:

  • The Making of Modern Ireland, c.1798-1940 (Option)
  • Armed Struggle: The Troubles in Northern Ireland and their Origins (Option)
  • Home Rule in Ireland and Britain, 1800-2000 (Option)
  • Disunited Kingdoms:  why do union states fail? (Option/Special Subject)

Postgraduate teaching

Director of PGT Programmes, History (2020-23)

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Current PhD students supervised

Name - Degree - Thesis topic - Supervision type

  • Browbank, Dannii - The thin Orange line:  policing Protestants, unionists and loyalists in Northern Ireland, 1968-86 - Primary Supervisor
  • Northcote, Callum - For King and Republic:  former British servicemen and the republican movement - Primary Supervisor

Past PhD students supervised

Name - Degree - Thesis topic - Supervision type - Completion year

  • Lyle, Gareth - PhD - The 8th battalion, Royal Irish Rifles, East Belfast and the Great War - Primary Supervisor
  • Bright, James - PhD - Loyalty in captivity: ideas and identity among Ulster loyalist paramilitary prisoners - Primary Supervisor
  • Govan, Dexter -  PhD -The Orange Order in Belfast and Glasgow, 1910-14 - Primary Supervisor
  • Dolan, Thomas - History and the Good Friday Agreement - Primary Supervisor
  • Mcinnes, Ian - PhD - “A separatist tendency?”: a political history of Bill Craig and the Vanguard Unionist movement - Primary Supervisor 
  • McHugh, Devon - PhD - Family, Leisure, and the Arts: Aspects of the Culture of the Aristocracy of Ulster, 1870-1925 - Primary Supervisor
  • Flewelling, Lindsey - PhD - Ulster Unionism and America, 1880-1920 - Primary Supervisor
  • O'Shea, Helen - PhD - Ireland and the Cyprus Insurgency - Primary Supervisor
  • Sayers, Melanie - PhD - Philip Kerr, Lord Lothian, and Ireland - Primary Supervisor

Research summary

From the start of my research career I have focused on the study of modern Ireland from the 18th century through to the 21st century.  I have written on political, social and cultural themes - and viewed Ireland using sustained and detailed comparative approaches (deploying Scots historical evidence in my Two Unions (2012) and wider continental European and global evidence in my United kingdoms (2023)).  My work engages with scholarship across a range of disciplines, including not only modern history but also political science, philosophy and law.    

I have long been interested in the functioning of multinational union state such as the United Kingdom.  My research began with a focus on Ireland's union with Britain and its operation (a focus and interest developed across several successful monographs).  More recent work has examined the Irish union alongside the other constitutional unions of the United Kingdom, and has expanded to reflect more widely on the nature of the complex union state, its cultures and longevity.

I have published over fifty articles and essays and eight books, including The Ulster Party, 1884-1911 (Oxford Historical Monographs: 1989), which won the ACIS Prize for Best First Book, and Ireland 1798-1998: Politics and War (Blackwell: 1999), which was short-listed for the Ewart-Biggs Literary Prize (2000) and which is currently (2025) in its third edition.

My The Two Unions: Ireland, Scotland, and the Survival of the United Kingdom, 1707-2007 (OUP: 2011) was shortlisted in Scotland for the Saltire Society’s Scottish History Book of the Year (2012) and for the Ewart-Biggs Irish Literary Prize (2013).

Amongst my recent work is The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History (OUP: 2014), which brings together 36 scholars across a range of disciplines, and which charts some of the major directions within historical studies on modern Ireland.  In 2018 I published Judging Redmond & Carson: Comparative Irish Lives (Royal Irish Academy):  this was launched by the Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD at the Royal Irish Academy.  I have also published a third edition of my Ireland 1798-1998 (Wiley: 2025) and United kingdoms (OUP: 2023), which is discussed below.

Current research interests

In 2015 I was awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship to allow me to develop my work on comparative Union states.  This has resulted in several publications, of which the most important has been United Kingdoms: Multinational Union States in Europe and Beyond, 1800-1925 (OUP: 2023).  This was highlighted in the Times Literary Supplement as a 'Book of the Year' and as 'comparative history at its best': it was praised in the Irish Times as 'scholarly and lucid' and in Victorian Studies as 'deeply learned and perceptive'.    This work - and my ongoing research - reflect an evolving interest in the ways in which complex union states function, the means through which they sometimes survive, and the ways in which they fail - occasionally violently. My current scholarship engages with modern Irish historiography - but also in detailed ways with (for example) scholarship on the Habsburg empire. My work has proved to be of interest to scholars across Europe and North America, where I regularly lecture, as well as across several disciplines including political science, philosophy and law.

Past project grants

Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship (2015-17)
British Academy Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship (2008-9)
British Academy Research Readership (2000-2)
British Academy Post Doctoral Fellowship (1986-88)

The list below is a subset of the information held on the University of Edinburgh PURE system, and includes Books, Chapters, Articles and Conference contributions. For a full list, including details of other publication types (e.g. reviews), please see the Edinburgh Research Explorer page for Professor Alvin Jackson.

Books - Authored

Jackson, A. (2025)  Ireland 1798-1998:  war, peace and beyond (third edition).  New Jersey: Wiley Blackwell.

Jackson, A. (2023)  United kingdoms:  multinational union states in Europe and beyond, 1800-1925.  Oxford:  OUP.

Jackson, A. (2018) Judging Redmond and Carson. Dublin: Royal Irish AcademyDOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt21c4t7j

Jackson, A. (2012) The Two Unions: Ireland, Scotland, and the survival of the United Kingdom, 1707-2007. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Jackson, A. (2010) Ireland, 1798-1998: war, peace and beyond (second edition). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell

Jackson, A. (2003) Home rule: an Irish history, 1800-2000. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Jackson, A. (1999) Ireland, 1798-1998: politics and war (first edition). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Jackson, A. (1995) Colonel Edward Saunderson: land and loyalty in Victorian Ireland. Oxford: Clarendon Press

Jackson, A. (1993)  Sir Edward Carson.  Dublin:  Historical Association of Ireland.

Jackson, A. (1989) The Ulster Party: Irish unionists in the House of Commons, 1884-1911. Oxford: Clarendon Press

Books - Edited

Jackson, A. (ed.) (2014:  paperback 2017) The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Jackson, A. and David N Livingstone (eds) (2008) Queen’s Thinkers: Essays on the Intellectual Heritage of a University.  Belfast:  Blackstaff Press.

Articles

Jackson, A. (2019) ‘Redmond and Carson:  Bloodshed, Borders and the Union state’, Revue Française de Civilization Britannique, 24, 2

Jackson, A. (2019) Union states, civil society and national symbols in the nineteenth century: Comparing united kingdoms. Scandinavica - An International Journal of Scandinavian Studies, 58(2)

Jackson, A. (2018) Mrs Foster and the rebels: Irish unionist approaches to the Easter Rising, 1916-2016. Irish Historical Studies, 42(161).  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/ihs.2018.10

Jackson, A. (2018)  ‘Foreword: Ireland and Finland: Mr Gladstone, National and Transnational Historiographies’, Irish Historical Studies, 41, 160.

Jackson, A. (2014) Ireland’s Long Nineteenth Century of Union. Journal of Modern European History, 86(1).  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/674343

Jackson, A. (2011) Tame Tory Hacks’? The Ulster Party at Westminster, 1922-72. Historical Journal, 54(2).  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X11000094

Jackson, A. (2011) 'Widening the Fight for Ireland's Freedom: Revolutionary Nationalism in its Global Contexts', Victorian Studies (review essay), 54, 1.

Jackson, A. and Foster, R. (2009) Men for All Seasons? Carson, Parnell, and the Limits of Heroism in Modern Ireland. European History Quarterly, 39(3).  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0265691409105060

Jackson, A. (2009)  '"Divided Hearts, United States": Historians, the Union and Unionists, Irish Historical Studies, xxxvi, 143.

Jackson, A. (2005) Unveiling Irish History. Journal of Contemporary History, 40.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022009405056131

Jackson, A. (2002) J.C. Beckett: Faith, Politics and Scholarship. Irish Historical Studies, 34 (129).

Jackson, A. (2001) The Irish Act of Union, 1801-2001. History Today, 51.

Jackson, A. (2000) 'Twentieth Century Foxes: Historians and Late Modern Ireland. Irish Historical Studies, 32, 126.

Jackson, A. (1999) Insiders and Frontiers: Paul Seawright, Documentary Photographer. Eire-Ireland, Spring 1999.

Jackson, A. (1996) ‘A View from the Summit: the Gladstone Diaries completed’, Irish Historical Studies, 30, 118.

Jackson, A. (1993), ’The Larne Gunrunners’ in History Ireland, 1, 1.

Jackson, A. (1992) Unionist Myths, 1912-1985. Past & Present: A Journal of Historical Studies, 136 (August 1992).

Jackson, A. (1990) Unionist Politics and Protestant Society in Edwardian Ireland. Historical Journal, 33(4).  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X00013789

Jackson, A. (1989) ’The Social and Political Origins of Partition’ in Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique, 5, 2.

Jackson, A. (1989) The Failure of Unionism in Dublin, 1900. Irish Historical Studies, 104

Jackson, A. (1987) Irish Unionism and the Russellite Threat, 1894 - 1906. Irish Historical Studies, 100

Chapters

Jackson, A. (2023)  ‘Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Britishness and the UK, 1800-1925’ in Ruth Hemstad et al (eds), Nordic Experiences in Pan-nationalisms: A Reappraisal and Comparison, 1840-1940.  London:  Routledge.

Jackson, A. (2023) "Prison of the nations?" Union and nationality in the United Kingdom, 1870-1925. In: Dalle Mulle, E., Rodogna, D. and Bieling, M. (eds.) Sovereignty, Nationalism, and the Quest for Homogeneity in Interwar Europe. London: Bloomsbury Academic.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350263413.ch-3

Jackson, A. (2022) Why did Wales stay in the union in the early 20th century?. In: Kinzer, B., Kramer, M. and Trainor, R. (eds.) Reform and its complexities in modern Britain: Essays inspired by Sir Brian Harrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192863423.003.0012

Jackson, A. (2018) The failure of British and Irish federalism, circa 1800–1950. In: Schütze, R. and Tierney, S. (eds.) The United Kingdom and the Federal Idea. London: Hart Publishing/ Bloomsbury.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781509907182.ch-001

Jackson, A. (2018) The origins, politics and culture of Irish Unionism, c.1880–1916. In: Bartlett, T. (ed.) The Cambridge History of Ireland Volume 4: 1880 to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.   DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316286470

Jackson, A. (2016) Shamrock and saltire: Irish home rule, independence and the Scottish referendum, 1914-2014. In: Paseta, S. (ed.) Uncertain Futures: Essays About the Irish Past for Roy Foster. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Jackson, A. (2014) Irish History in the 20th and 21st Centuries. In: Jackson, A. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook to Modern Irish History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Jackson, A. (2014) Loyalists and Unionists. In: Jackson, A. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook to Modern Irish History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Jackson, A. (2011) Gladstone, Ireland, Scotland and the 'Union of heart and spirit'. In: Daly, M. and Hoppen, K. (eds.) Gladstone: Ireland and Beyond. Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 23-44

Jackson, A. (2007) Inter-War Ireland. In: Gerwarth, R. (ed.) Twisted Paths: Europe 1914-1945. OUP: Oxford University Press

Jackson, A. (2005) Ireland, the Union, and the British Empire, 1800-1960. In: Kevin Kenny (ed.) Ireland and the British Empire. OUP: Oxford University Press.

Jackson, A. (2005) The Survival of the Union, 1800-1920. In: Joseph Cleary and Claire Connolly (eds.) Cambridge Companion to Modern Irish Culture. CUP: Cambridge University Press.

Jackson, A. (2004) Charles, 6th Marques of Londonderry. In: B.H. Harrison (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: OUP.

Jackson, A. (2004) Charles, 7th Marques of Londonderry. In: B.H. Harrison (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: OUP.

Jackson, A. (2004) Edward Gibson, 1st Lord Ashbourne. In: B.H. Harrison (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: OUP.

Jackson, A. (2004) Edward Saunderson. In: B.H. Harrison (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: OUP.

Jackson, A. (2004) George Wyndham. In: B.H. Harrison (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: OUP.

Jackson, A. (2004) James, 2nd Duke of Abercorn. In: B.H. Harrison (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: OUP.

Jackson, A. (2004) T. W. Russell. In: B.H. Harrison (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: OUP.

Jackson, A. (2004) Walter Long. In: B.H. Harrison (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: OUP.

Jackson, A. (2004) William Johnston. In: B.H. Harrison (ed.) The New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: OUP.

Jackson, A. (2003) Unionism and the Future of the Union. In: Robert Savage Jr. (ed.) Ireland and the new century: politics, culture & identity. Dublin: Irish Academic Press

Jackson, A. (2002) Local Government in Northern Ireland, 1921-72. In:  Mary Daly (ed) County and Town: Local Government in Ireland, 1898-1998. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration.

Jackson, A. (2000) British Ireland: What if Home Rule has been enacted in 1912?. In: Niall Ferguson (ed.) Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals. London: Pan Macmillan.

Jackson, A. (2000) Irish Unionism, 1880-1920. In: D George Boyce and Alan O'Day (eds.) Defenders of the Union. London: Routledge

Jackson, A. (1996) Irish Unionism. In: D George Boyce and Alan O'Day (eds.) The Making of Modern Irish History: Revisionism and the Revisionist Controversy. London: Routledge

Jackson, A. (1996) Irish Unionists and the Empire, 1880-1920: Classes and Masses. In: Jeffery, K. (ed.) An Irish Empire?: Aspects of Ireland and the British Empire. Manchester: Manchester University Press

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