Irish Medical Graduates and the British empire, c. 1870-1920. (360G-Wellcome-101936_Z_13_Z)

The research proposed is designed to establish how, firstly, the British empire defined the education and careers of Irish medical graduates during the period 1870-1920. Secondly, it wishes to find out how these graduates contributed to the British imperial system through medicine and how significant their contribution to that system was relative to their contemporaries from other parts of the United Kingdom. Through hypothesizing on these issues, the research looks to achieve the following goals: - Contribute to a more nuanced understanding of Irish identity in the period leading up to Irish Independence in the early 1920s. - Chart how Irish medics interacted with discourses concerning public health in India and British Central Asia, especially concerning 'famine fever' and plague in the period 1870-1900. Specifically, did Irish medics share a response to these phenomena due to a collective cultural memory of Famine in Ireland? - Ascertain how Irish medics contributed to wider 'colonial' knowledge of Asian society, through fields such as literature and ethnography. - Understand the comparative position of Irish medics in colonial personnel networks by using innovative digital techniques (Social Network Analysis) that promote greater accuracy in the visualization and quantification of social relationships.