This was a busy year, with lots of exciting events and projects. Bear with me while I blow my trumpet just a little; I don’t think most of us stop and take stock of our successes nearly often enough.

The biggest achievement of the year was the launch of the exhibition I co-curated for the Department of Foreign Affairs with Dr Damian Bracken (UCC), Ireland and the Birth of Europe. The exhibition was launched in Ireland by the Tánaiste Micheál Martin TD, and in Rome by President Michael D. Higgins. It has toured internationally, including in Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Morocco and the US, with more to come in 2024. The exhibition’s domestic Irish tour saw it displayed in UCC, the Hunt Museum, the Royal Irish Academy, and local libraries in Thurles, Letterkenny and Killarney, and more showings are planned in 2024.

Guiding President Higgins and Sabina through the exhibition in the Irish College, Rome

I signed with a publisher for my first solo-authored children’s history book – it’s due out in autumn 2024, so watch this space for more details.

I published a couple of short pieces this year, including an RTÉ Brainstorm piece on the history of the aurora borealis in Ireland, and an essay on the impact of emigration on nineteenth-century Ballyshannon. I also had a lovely time recording a podcast with Dr Liam Campbell, director of the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies (listen here).

Participating in An Post panel discussion with Zainab Boladale (left) and Siobhán McKenna (centre)

My events calendar was brimming, too. The highlights were participating in a panel discussion at the launch of An Post’s special stamp series commemorating women in public life; moderating a wonderful panel discussion as part of Earagail Arts Festival, giving talks all over County Donegal for Heritage Week and for Wainfest Children’s Arts and Books Festival in Donegal, taking part in a panel discussion to launch Ireland and the Birth of Europe in Helsinki, and guiding President Higgins through the exhibition in Rome.

I’d wish you a restful holiday season, but there’s a good chance you are like me – over-committed, balancing writing and research with a day job and parenting, but still chomping at the bit to get going on all your ideas. My next book (Irish encounters with Russia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) is going through its final set of edits right now, and then I’ll be straight into editing the children’s book.

Most of all, I’ll be glad that I have somewhere safe and warm to do this work, the stable electricity supply I need, and those people closest to me near-at-hand to share the highs and lows. Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh.