Phil Kilroy

Phil Kilroy is a Research Associate in Trinity College Dublin. She received her BA and MA in History from University College Dublin and her doctorate from Trinity College Dublin. She is a historian of nonconformity and dissent in 17th century Irelnd. Her work, Protestant Dissent and Controversy in Ireland 1660-1714 was published in 1994 by Cork University Press, and she continues to write and publish on the history of ideas and specifically on religious dissent and non-conformity in 17th and 18th century Ireland.

She also researches the history of women in Europe 1600-1900, and in recent years has focused on the history of French women during the Enlightenment and the Revolutionary period. She accepted two commissions to write on these themes and was based in Paris and Rome for some years to pursue her research. In 2000 she published the biography Madeleine Sophie Barat: A life (Cork University Press), and in 2012 published The Society of the Sacred Heart in 19th century France, 1800-1865, (Cork University Press). Both books have been translated into several languages.

At present she is researching the impact of the Inquisition on women in France from 1800-1885. This study is based on material held in the Inquisition Archives of the Vatican.