Jackie Uí Chionna: Queen of Codes

Jackie Uí Chionna is an historian, writer, and traditional singer from Dublin, who teaches History at the University of Galway. A social historian of modern Ireland, she is also an experienced biographer and oral historian. A committed public historian, she has contributed to numerous TV and radio documentaries, in both English and Irish, in Ireland and the UK. 

Her first book, He Was Galway: Máirtín Mór McDonogh, 1860-1934 (2016), was a best seller in Ireland, and shortlisted for the NUI Irish Historical Research Prize. Her second book, An Oral History of University College Galway, 1930-1980: A University in Living Memory was published in 2019. Her biography of Galway-born Emily Anderson OBE, Queen of Codes: The Secret Life of Emily Anderson, Britain’s Greatest Female Codebreaker, (Headline Publishing (UK) 2023) was described by one reviewer as “Completely compelling, endlessly illuminating and richly intriguing – Jackie Uí Chionna’s wonderfully written and deeply researched work has at last pulled back the curtain of secrecy from one of Bletchley Park’s most extraordinary unsung figures.” (Sinclair McKay, author, The Secret Life of Bletchley Park).  She has held Visiting Fellowships at Churchill College Cambridge and at the Oxford Centre for Life Writing at Wolfson College Oxford, and is currently an Associate Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), School of Advanced Study, University of London.