ARINS, Ireland, and Notre Dame: A Conversation with Leo Varadkar
Please join the Keough-Naughton Institute for a public conversation with Leo Varadkar, former Taoiseach of Ireland and Distinguished Visiting Policy Fellow in the Keough School for Global Affairs, on the constitutional future of the island of Ireland and the work of the ARINS Project (Analysing and Researching Ireland North & South).
Varadkar will join Colin Barr, Thomas Moore and Judy Livingston Director of the Keough-Naughton Institute and professor of modern Irish history, for a brief conversation on the research and policy impact ARINS has achieved across its five years of activity as well as new directions and outputs. The conversation will be followed by a panel discussion with project leaders, Prof. Patrick Prendergast, Chair of ARINS and former provost of Trinity College Dublin, Lynn Scarff, Executive Director of the Royal Irish Academy, and Pauric Dempsey, KNI Dublin Executive Director.
Launched in 2021 as a partnership between the Royal Irish Academy and the University of Notre Dame, ARINS provides authoritative, independent, and non-partisan research on and analysis of constitutional, institutional, social, and policy options for the island of Ireland. Since its inception, the project has provided policymakers, academics, and the public with informed insight into the prospect of a united Ireland and its potential effects on the social, economic, and cultural lives of citizens across both jurisdictions.
This event is an opportunity for Notre Dame faculty, researchers, and the wider campus community to learn about the current work of the ARINS project and ways to get involved in its future.
Registration for this event is encouraged but not required.
About the speakers
Colin Barr is the Thomas Moore and Judy Livingston Director of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies and professor of modern Irish history in the Keough School of Global Affairs. Barr joined the University of Notre Dame faculty in 2022, having previously been a faculty member at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. He has been a visiting fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and the University of Newcastle, Australia, and Parnell Fellow at Magdelene College, Cambridge. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Barr’s work seeks to place the history of the island of Ireland and its peoples in the widest possible context, including that of the United Kingdom, the continent of Europe, the Roman Catholic Church, and the global Irish Diaspora. Barr’s next book, The Irish Pope: Paul Cullen, 1803-1878, will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2025.
Pauric Dempsey was appointed Executive Director of the Institute's Dublin office in January 2024, following a two-year appointment as Fellow. Prior to that he was Head of Communications and Public Affairs at the Royal Irish Academy where he helped devise many initiatives including the ARINS Project, Women on Walls, and A History of Ireland in 100 Objects. He has presented radio programmes for RTE including Icons of Irish Science and Making Sense of it all and was Executive Producer on the Irish Mind TV series for CNBC and RTE. The publication of biography has been a feature of his career to date. He helped devise the Judging series of biographies, the first of which was Judging Dev by Diarmaid Ferriter. He also wrote nearly two hundred biographies for the Dictionary of Irish Biography. Between 2013 and 2015 he was chairman of RTE’s Audience Council and was a council member of Gaisce, The President's Award (2018–24).
Patrick Prendergast has been Chairperson of ARINS since January 2026. Born in Co. Wexford, Ireland, he is an academic having spent much of his career in Trinity College Dublin as Professor of Bio-Engineering, as a Dean, and as Chief Academic Officer before serving as President/Provost from 2011 to 2021. More recently, he returned to his home region as Chair of the Governing Board of South-East Technological University. He chairs a number of groups in the Arts, most recently Creative Places Enniscorthy, a project promoting socially-engaged art in his hometown. He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA) and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng).
Lynn Scarff is the Executive Director of the Royal Irish Academy, commencing the role in January 2026. Previously, Scarff was the Director of the National Museum of Ireland. An advocate for how engagement with cultural heritage can offer opportunities for greater inclusivity, conversation, and connection in communities, her work focused on building the Museum’s capacity to enable greater accessibility to the national collection. As part of the development team of Science Gallery Dublin at Trinity College Dublin, she developed a compelling program of cultural experiences exploring the boundaries of art and science. In 2012, she was part of the leadership team that established the Global Science Gallery Network and in 2014, she was appointed Director. Scarff's research work has focused on non-formal learning settings and the opportunities presented by cultural spaces to engage young people, particularly marginalized audiences. She has participated in and held several science and society and research grants awarded by Science Foundation Ireland; Wellcome Trust, UK; National Science Foundation, USA and Horizon Europe and Creative Europe calls.
Leo Varadkar was Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland from 2017-2020 and again from 2022-24. He served in the cabinet continuously for 13 years in the Ministries of Transport, Tourism & Sport, Enterprise, Trade, Employment, Social Protection and Health. As Taoiseach, Varadkar helped lead Ireland through Covid as well as through Brexit, preventing a hard border between North and South and maintaining Ireland’s place at the heart of the European Union. Believing that work should be rewarded, he introduced the right to sick pay, paid paternity and parental leave, a living wage, occupational pensions for all workers and a new public holiday – St Brigid’s Day. His government enacted a new climate law committing to ‘net zero’ by 2050. He also led Ireland into PESCO, the EU’s structured co-operation on Defense and Security. Varadkar is a life member of Ireland’s Council of State, which advises the President on constitutional matters. A member of the Global Advisory Board of Penta Group, he writes a column for the Sunday Times Ireland. He serves on the Board of Global Citizen Europe and the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA).
Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.