outreach
Member of the Irish Association of Professional Historians (IAPH)
Elected member of the Corporate, Education, Culture, Heritage and Library Services Strategic Policy Committee of Mayo County Council (2019-2023)
Chairperson and founder of St Cormac’s Heritage Charity (2016-2023)
History Officer with Mayo GAA County Board (2019-2023)
Creative Momentum Regional Industry Advisory Group member - an EU transnational project to support the creative industries sector (2015-2018)
The Volunteers of Moygownagh ‘C’ Company, North Mayo
Chapter by Liam Alex Heffron
Dr Liam Alex Heffron
Awarded a PhD and MA with first class honours in Irish History, from the University of Galway, Liam Alex won the NUI Galway Explore Innovation award for his 2019 Digital Humanities project to digitally archive over 700,000 images from obsolete national school roll books and as Mayo GAA history officer managed his Beo Mayo living history project to create an online repository for heritage records of GAA clubs and supporters in county Mayo (www.beomayo.ie — available Dec. 2023).
Liam Alex’s PhD study, completed in 2023, examined the revolutionary intersection of land hunger, social justice impulse and memory, in a west of Ireland community. Among other conclusions, his work found that the impulse for rebellion is not necessarily based on poverty, injustice or oppression, but on a ‘spirit of revolution’ which successfully diffused and ignited through social groups along pre-existing ‘tribal’ demarcations — and may apply in modern protest movements.
Embracing innovative communication routes and critical appraisal methods to meet students where they are at, Liam Alex encourages a shared understanding of evolving historiography. Using pioneering IT tools, I develop a healthy quest for truth by students, within yesterday’s transformative events and today’s complex intra-societal conversations.
Dr Heffron was also a member of the Corporate, Education, Culture, Heritage and Library Services Strategic Policy Committee of Mayo County Council (2019-2023) and a member of the Creative Momentum Regional Industry Advisory Group - an EU transnational project to support the creative industries sector (2015-2018).
Having trained and worked as an actor in Ireland and Hollywood, Liam Alex brings his unique blend of artistic talent and scholarly expertise to his work, being able to marry both within the practical application of historical accuracy in creative storytelling on screen and stage.(www.LiamAlex.com)
An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny and Liam Alex Heffron
Experience
Irish Heritage and Genealogical Consultant
2016 - Present, Ireland and USA
Providing Irish heritage and genealogical expertise to the public, business and state agencies relating to grant and planning applications, marketing, service provision and family research. Research advisor to BBC’s TV programme Who do you think you are?. Developer of the Saints and Sinners Trail and Blanemore Forest Walk with integrated online documentary videos and smartphone self-guide app.
Teacher and Researcher
2018-2023, University of Galway
Post-doc researcher: assistant archivist in digitally cataloging and populating the Kerby Miller Collection of transcribed letters from over three centuries of Irish emigrants’ correspondence. First year student tutor, teacher and delivered lectures in the history school, using hybrid teaching model of in-class, remote learning and team projects.
TV Presenter, Contributor and Actor
2012 - Present, RTE & BBC, Dublin and Los Angeles
Film and Documentary producer, writer and actor with sixty IMDB credits. Contributor to RTE TV’s The Battle for Rural Ireland and Claire Byrne Live. Associate Producer and consulting historian on the award-winning Top of the Rock film featuring 1930’s Irish builders of the Rockefeller Centre, New York. Plays Garda Sean Doran on popular Irish TV Drama Series Fair City on RTE TV.
CEO of Alarmcare Ltd.
2000 - 2012, Galway
Electronic engineer & security systems specialist. Inventor and holder of two intellectual patents the GASEC electronic monitoring system.