Dr. Leeann Lane

Dr. Leeann Lane is an Associate Professor in the School fo History and Geography, DCU. She has a PhD from Boston College, a research MA and a BA from UCC.

Her primary area of research is modern Irish history with a specialisation in nineteenth and twentieth-century gender and women's history. This work to date has focused on biographical studies of female activists in the area of suffrage and women involved in the Irish revolutionary period with a focus on those who adopted an anti-Treaty position in 1921. The manner in which women negotiated the limited opportunities available to women in an independent Ireland characterised by repressive legislation which limited the rights of women in the public sphere is core to the research.

Dr. Lane is particularly interested in the issue of marital status in the independent Ireland, in particular the position of single heterosexual women in a society dominated by the ideology of separate spheres promoted by State and the Catholic church. 

Dr. Lane has just completed a biography of Mary MacSwiney published in March 2025. 

Dr. Lane has also published in the area of the Irish cultural revival. 

In 2012 Dr. Lane was appointed by the Taoiseach to the Expert Advisory Group on the Decade of Centenaries.