In 2013 the Irish Humanities Alliance / Comhaontas Daonnachtaí na hÉireann (IHA) was established as a joint initiative of humanities researchers within higher education and research institutions including universities across the island of Ireland and the Royal Irish Academy / Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann (RIA) which hosts and supports the IHA. Since its creation the IHA has championed humanities research and scholarship in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Humanities disciplines in both jurisdictions enjoy an excellent international reputation, and the IHA was formed to address the central place of the humanities in the context of a higher education policy landscape that is increasingly shaped by economic imperatives.
All-island
The IHA provides a platform for all-island humanities collaboration and consultation. This has enabled the diverse range of humanities disciplines across the island to speak with a single voice. In the context of Brexit, the IHA remains committed to championing the social, cultural and economic value of humanities education and research in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Stakeholders
The IHA works closely with the Irish Research Council (IRC), and has taken part in the initial consultation on the purpose, vision, and priorities for the new funding agency, Taighde Éireann - Research Ireland. At an EU level the IHA is an active member of the European Alliance for the Social Sciences and the Humanities (EASSH), and has been a member organisation of the Governing Board of this body since its inception in 2015.The IHA works with National Experts, National Delegates and National Contact Points in Ireland and Northern Ireland to bring an effective, co-ordinated humanities response to bear on draft EU work programmes in Horizon 2020 and its successor programme Horizon Europe.
Strategy
In November 2019 the IHA launched its strategic vision for the humanities: By Imagination We Live. This strategy is based on extensive consultation with IHA member institutions and is rooted in the conviction that the humanities disciplines have a major contribution to make to the the most pressing social, political, cultural, technological, and environmental issues of the 21st century.
Working Groups
The IHA has a number of Working Groups, details of which can be found at our The Humanities in Ireland page.
Predecessor, Humanities Serving Irish Society
'In 2008, the Humanities Serving Irish Society consortium was formed. Through its agency successful bids were made under the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions, Cycles 4 and 5. Its results include three major collaborative projects, the Digital Humanities Observatory (DHO), the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) and the Digital Arts and Humanities PhD programme, offered across several universities, as well as many influential institutional projects. In its five years of existence HSIS demonstrated the level of success that the humanities could achieve when a national platform was formed . . . Its successor body, the Irish Humanities Alliance (IHA), formed in March 2013, while working in a more difficult funding environment, has a crucial role to play in advocating for the humanities, and in particular, in finding the most appropriate and adaptive strategy for communicating the value of the work done in humanities in Ireland.' Jane Conroy and Margaret Kelleher, eds., Restating the Value of the Humanities (2014, p. xi.)
IHA Chairs (2013-present)
2023-24: Prof. Marie-Louise Coolahan (UG)
2022-23: Dr Maxim Fomin (UU)
2021-22: Prof. Chris Williams (UCC)
2020-21: Dr Niamh Nic Ghabhann (UL)
2019-20: Prof. Eugene McNulty (DCU)
2018-19: Prof. Anne Fuchs (UCD)
2017-18: Prof. Noel Fitzpatrick (TUD)
2016-17: Prof. Gerardine Meaney (UCD)
2015-16: Prof. Daniel Carey (UG)
2014-15: Prof. Daniel Carey (UG)
2013-14: Prof. Patrick O'Donovan (UCC)
