About Barbara Walsh



When Irish author and historian Barbara Walsh gained a doctorate in history from Lancaster University in 1999, she had already enjoyed a long and productive career which had encompassed a number of creative outlets.

From the early 1960s up to the end of the 1980s she had worked as a freelance writer, broadcaster, journalist and multi-media producer (at times writing under the name of Bairbre Breathnach or Barbara Haycock Walsh) This activity included occasional forays into journalism for print, radio features and short stories for print or Radio Eireann and BBC – including one TV play screened in 1969. This was followed by a concentration on commercial work for radio and TV.

In parallel with this activity, she was an active committee member of the Irish branch of the International writers’ association, P.E.N., and also a committee member of the Dublin Sketching Club until 1990. Since the early 1950s, her work as an artist was always exhibited and sold under her maiden name, Barbara Haycock.

Published work includes:

BOOKS:

Irish Servicewomen in the Great War: From Western Front to Roaring Twenties (Pen & Sword Books, Yorkshire and Philadelphia, 2020)
When the call went out in 1917 for volunteers willing to serve both at home and on the Western Front in a newly founded Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, young women from every province of Ireland responded just as eagerly as those from homes in Scotland, England and Wales.
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Forgotten Aviator Hubert Latham: a high-flying gentleman (The History Press, UK, 2007)
The authoritative biography of pioneer aviator Hubert Latham based on his own private papers and other primary sources. Now up-dated by two revised and improved editions containing many additional and unique illustrations.

The U.S.A. edition Hubert Latham 1883-1912: Forgotten Aviator: A Man of his Time (Odyssey, Dublin, 2013) And
French language edition (Translated by Marie Léoutre) Hubert Latham: Un Pilote Méconnu 1883-1912 (Les Editions de l’officine, Paris, 2013)
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When the Shopping was Good: Woolworths and the Irish Main Street
(Irish Academic Press, Dublin & Portland, Or., 2011)
The hugely popular nostalgic story of Ireland’s most iconic shopping experience.
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Roman Catholic Nuns in England and Wales 1883-1937 (Irish Academic Press, Dublin & Portland, Or., 2002)
Based on the author’s Doctoral thesis in 1999, this work presented a ground-breaking definitive text for students of the history of women religious.
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Sisters (Blackstaff Press, Belfast 1980)
A co-authored a collection of short stories. The author’s contributions were written under the name of Barbara Haycock Walsh.
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Journal Articles

‘Lifting the Veil on Entrepreneurial Irishwomen : Running Convents in Nineteenth-Century England and Wales’,
History Ireland, Volume 11, No 4, Winter, 2003, pp.23-28

‘Revolving Retailers: when Woolies left Ireland, 1984’
History Ireland, Volume 19 no.5, September/October 2011, pp.44-45

‘Dublin’s Woolworth Stores 1914-1984’
Dublin Historical Record, Vol.64, 2011, pp.112-28

‘Cruelty and Compassion in the Convents : Were Irishwomen key to the rise of religious life in the nineteenth century?’
Maynooth University History Forum, 2nd Annual Conference Papers, 2013.

‘Chain Store Retailing in Ireland : A case study of F.W.Woolworth & Co.Ltd. 1914- 2008’,
Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, Volume 6 Number 1, 2014, pp. 98-115
(Bingley, UK Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.)
ISBN 978-1-78350-6231 and ISSN 1755-750X

‘Lifting the Veil on the Business of Running Convents 1850-1917: The Economic, Political and Social Background’,
Journal of the Essex Recusant Society, No.7, 2015, pp.7-18

‘Scottish Girls who served behind the lines in World War One'
The Scottish Genealogist : Quarterly Journal of the Scottish Genealogy Society
Vol. LXIII No.1, March 2016, pp.18- 23

‘Armistice Days in Dublin as viewed by ex-members of the Irish Command of WAAC/QMAAC 1917-1919'
History Ireland, Volume 26, No 6, November/December 2018, pp.36-39

‘Two former WAAC Signallers’, in 100 Wonderful Women, edited by Tanya-Jaye Park,
Women’s Royal Army Corps Association, Winchester, UK, 2019, pp.14-20

‘The Key Role Played by WAAC British Post Office Female Staff in Army Signal Units on the Western Front, 1917–1920; Journal of Information & Culture, Volume 55, Number 1, 2020, pp. 75-97, University of Texas Press, Austin,Texas, USA.

Contact: barbaraw@barbarawalsh.com

Barbara Walsh has previously written and broadcast under the names of:
Baibre Breathnach - Barbara M. Walsh - B. M. Walsh - Barbara Haycock Walsh