It's no secret that the Irish are obsessed with misery, suffering and death. And no wonder, for there is darkness everywhere you look: in cemeteries and castles, monuments and museums, stories and songs. In The Darkness Echoing, Gillian O'Brien tours Ireland's most deliciously dark heritage sites, delving into the stories behind them and asking what they reveal about the Irish.

Energetic, illuminating and surprisingly funny, The Darkness Echoing challenges old, accepted narratives about Ireland, and asks intriguing questions about Ireland's past, present and future.

Dr. O' Brien is the Program Leader for the MA in Modern History and module leader for 'Ireland 1690-1922'; 'Celebration and Commemoration in Irish History' and 'Revolutionary Traditions in Ireland.' She is currently working on a number of projects including books on the Irish in America from the Civil War to the turn of the twentieth century and on Crime and Dark Tourism in Ireland. She is also involved in a collaborative study with Jessie Castle (an architectural historian and Visiting Research Fellow at LJMU) on an architectural and social history of convents in eighteenth and nineteenth century Ireland. In addition she is interested in the history of women journalists in America and representations of the Irish in the illustrations of Thomas Nast. Gillian is also involved in a number of public history projects and has been the historical advisor for museum and heritage scheme including the development of Spike Island in Co. Cork, Ireland and work on Kilmainham Gaol and Courthouse in Co. Dublin and Nano Nagle Place in Cork city. As part of her work on museums and heritage centers she has published 'Inception, Development, Operation: A Report on Best Practice for Site-Specific Museums and Heritage Centers' (2018) and 'Beyond Storytelling: Exhibiting the Past (2020)