Maynooth University Faculty of Social Sciences

My current research looks at the 'twinned transition' of digitisation and decarbonisation as it plays out in Ireland. Ireland has become a hub for energy-intensive data centres and their associated infrastructures, such as offshore wind and subsea cables. The implications of this go beyond energy consumption or emissions, as the tech industry positions itself as the key agent of decarbonisation via the financing and development of alternative energy generation and grid services. This raises vital questions about the the nature and direction of the energy transition, as well as the geopolitics of the green transition as these critical infrastructures are enrolled within EU-security and defence strategies.

This work connects a number of longstanding interests, including how Ireland's colonial and postcolonial development continues to shape the present; the production of environments and infrastructures for Foreign Direct Investment; the political ecology of the green transition and environmental governance; and transnational environmental justice movements centring claims around land, decolonisation and labour.

My book, All We Want is the Earth. Land, Labour and Movements beyond Environmentalism, written with long-time collaborator Naomi Millner (Bristol University), will be published in 2023 with Bristol University Press. 

My research is often collaborative, including working with local community groups, activists, and artists. I am interested in experimenting with creative methods and practices. This interest has been shaped by my involvement in the Provisional University (provisionaluniversity.wordpress.ie) and the Authority Research Network (www.authorityresearch.net). 

I am currently supervising:
- Cristóir King on Contested Transitions: Environmental Conflicts and Justice in Rural Ireland (IRC-funded)
- Laure Detymowski on urban environmental justice (IRC-funded)