Taoiseach Micheál Martin will travel to Cambridge University today to mark the establishment of a permanent chair of Irish history at the world-renowned institution.
The position is being funded by a once-off €4.3m endowment from the Government’s reconciliation fund, which is designed to help improve relations between Ireland and Britain.
The Cambridge University role will be known as the Childers Chair in honour of former president Erskine Childers and his father Robert Erskine Childers, both of whom studied at Cambridge University.
Speaking this morning before travelling for the event, the Taoiseach said:
“I am delighted to be in Cambridge today to mark the establishment of the Childers Chair of Irish History in Trinity College Cambridge.
“This new chair will deepen and enrich scholarship and build a greater understanding of the complex and interlinked political, economic and social histories of Ireland and Britain, and how these histories entwined to shape our two countries and the evolving relationship between us.”