Ida Milne is a social historian whose primary research interest lies in the history of infectious disease, looking at its impact on society in a world before vaccination, sanitary improvements and antibiotics. Her book on the Spanish flu was published last year. She is particularly interested in using oral history to find the voices not generally encountered in official archives. From a family background of 400 years of Protestantism in Wexford and Carlow, with a GAA pitch on the land in the 1960s, she explores the story, through oral history, of Protestant engagement with the GAA. With Dr Ian d’Alton, she has co-edited Protestant and Irish, the minority’s search for place in Independent Ireland, published this year by Cork University Press, which continues to sell strongly. Ida is European history lecturer at Carlow College, is co-chair of the international section of the Oral History Association, on the steering committee of the Oral History Network of Ireland and of History of Science Technology and Medicine Ireland, a member of the RIA historical sciences committee, and chair of the Health and Environment Strand of the European Social Science History Conference. She services on the Church of Ireland Working Group on the Decade of Centenaries, and on the RIA Disestablishment conference committee. Her family live in Ferns.
