Publications
Books
- Ireland (London and New York, 2003) [in series 'Inventing the nation'] 279 pages.
- The fenians in context: Irish politics and society, 1848-82 (Dublin and New Jersey, 1985; 2nd ed., 1998) 272 pages.
- Now available as an ebook at LeanPub.
- C.J. Kickham: a study in Irish nationalism and Irish literature (Dublin, 1979) 255 pages.
Contributions to A new history of Ireland
- Introduction and primary narrative for 1870-91 in vol. 6, ed. by W.E. Vaughan (Oxford, 1996), pp xliii-lvii and 1-80.
- Primary narrative for 1850-70 in vol. 5, ed. by W.E. Vaughan (Oxford, 1989), pp 372-45
Contributions to standard works of reference
- Entry for T.W. Moody (1907-84), James McGuire and James Quinn (eds), Dictionary of Irish Biography (Cambridge, 2009)
- Associate editor for nineteenth-century Ireland, and contributor of various entries, including approximately 10,000 words on Daniel O'Connell: Oxford dictionary of national biography (Oxford, 2004)
- Editorial adviser and author of various entries, Sean Connolly (ed.), The Oxford companion to Irish history (Oxford, 1998)
Articles and chapters
- Review of John Crowley, William J. Smyth and Mike Murphy (eds.), Alas of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-52 (Cork: Cork University Press, 2012) in Irish Economic and Social History, xlii (2016, pp. 133-38)
- 'Conundrums of national musicology: an appreciation of the Encyclopedia of music in Ireland (2013)' in Kerry Houston and Harry White (eds), A msuical offering: essays in honour of Gerard Gillen (Dublin, 2017), pp 360-72
- 'Avant-propos' in Janick Julienne, Un Irlandais à Paris: John Patrick Leonard, au cœur des relations franco-irlandaises (1814-1889) (Oxford, 2016), pp. xi-xiv
- (Interview with David Doolin) 'The making and remaking of Irish history: an interview with Vincent Comerford' in Studies in Arts and Humanities, vol. 2 no. 1 (2016), pp. 78-86
- 'The impediments to freehold ownership of land and the character of the Irish land war' in Senia Paseta (ed.), Uncertain futures: essays about the Irish past for Roy Foster (Oxford, 2016), pp 51-61
- 'Stephens, Devoy and Clarke' in Eugenio Biagini and Daniel Mulhall (eds), The shaping of modern Ireland: a centenary assessment (Sallins, 2016), pp 13-25
- 'Foreword' to Thomas Nelson, Through peace and war: Kildare county council in the years of revolution, 1899-1926 (Maynooth, 2015)
- 'Deference, accommodation and conflict in Irish confessional relations' in Colin Barr and Hilary M. Carey (eds), Religion and greater Ireland: Christianity and Irish global networks, 1750-1950 (Montreal, 2015), pp 33-51
- 'Introduction' to Karol Mullaney-Dignam (ed.), William Despard Hemphill: Irish Victorian photographer (Dublin, 2014), pp 12-15
- 'Introduction' to Christopher Ridgeway (ed.), The Morpeth roll: Ireland identified in 1841 (Dublin, 2013), pp 1-5
- 'Grievance, scourge, or shame? The complexity of attitudes to Ireland's Great Famine' in Christian Noack, Lindsay Janssens and R.V. Comerford (eds), Holodomor and Gorta Mór: histories, memories and representations of famine in the Ukraine and Ireland (London, New York and Delhi, 2012), pp 51-73
- (With Christian Noack and Lindsay Jansen) 'Introduction: Holodomor and Gorta Mór: histories, memories and representations of famine in Ukraine and Ireland' in Christian Noack, Lindsay Janssens and R.V. Comerford (eds), Holodomor and Gorta Mór: histories, memories and representations of famine in the Ukraine and Ireland (London, New York and Delhi, 2012), pp 1-16
- 'Foreword' in Brian Heffernan et al. (eds), Life on the fringe? Ireland and Europe, 1800 and 1922 (Dublin, 2012), pp xv-xvi
- 'Nationality on the fringe: modern Ireland from dependence to interdependence' in Brian Heffernan et al. (eds) Life on the fringe? Ireland and Europe, 1800 and 1922 (Dublin, 2012), pp 241-56
- 'Préface' to Pierre Ranger, La France vue d'Irlande: L'histoire du mythe français de Parnell à l'État Libre (Rennes, 2011), pp 11-12
- 'Foreword' in Terence Dooley and Christopher Ridgway (eds), The Irish country house: its past, present and future (Dublin, 2011), pp 11-13
- (With Jennifer Kelly) 'Introduction' in Jennifer Kelly and R.V. Comerford (ed.), Associational cutlure in Ireland and abroad (Dublin, 2010), pp 1-10
- 'Fenianism: the scope and limitations of a concept' in Feargal McGarry and James McConnel (eds), The black hand of republicanism: Fenianism in modern Ireland (Dublin, 2009)
- 'Ireland's nineteenth century' in Séamus Ó Síocháin (ed.), Social thought in Ireland in the nineteenth century (Dublin, 2009), pp 1-8
- 'The political cultures of Europe in a historical context: western Europe' in Ekavi Athanassopoulou (ed.), The political cultures of Europe (London & New York, 2007)
- 'Two classics from South Tipperary: Keating's Foras feasa and Kickham's Knocknagow' in Tipperary Journal (2005)
- 'Republicans and democracy in modern Irish politics' in Fearghal McGarry (ed.), Republicanism in modern Ireland (Dublin, 2003), pp 8-22.
- 'Canon John O'Rourke, historian of the great famine', in T. Kabdebo (ed.), Beyond the library walls (Maynooth, 1995), pp 58-68.
- 'Comprehending the Fenians' in Saothar: Journal of the Irish Labour History Society, no. 17 (1992), pp 52-56
- 'Nation, nationalism and the Irish language' in T.E. Hachey and L.J. McCaffrey (ed.) Perspectives on Irish nationalism (Lexington, 1989)
- 'The British state and the education of Irish Catholics, 1850-1921' in J. Tomiak et al (ed.), Schooling, educational policy and ethnic identity (Dartmouth, 1989), pp 13-33
- 'Political myths in modern Ireland' in Irishness in a changing society (Gerrards Cross, 1988), pp 1-17.
- 'Tipperary representation at Westminster, 1801-1918' in W. Nolan (ed.), Tipperary history and society (Dublin, 1985)
- (With Herman van der Wusten) 'Het New Ireland Forum en de ontwikkeling von de Iersekwestie' in Internationale Spectator (Nov. 1984) pp 638-646
- 'France, the fenians and Irish Nationalist strategy' in Études Irelandaises, no. 7 (1982), pp 115-25.
- 'Mishuaimhneas and náisiúnachas sa naoú haois déag' (Discontent and nationalism in the nineteenth century) in Léachtaí Cholm Cille XIII: Éire, Banba, Fódhla (1982), pp 151-65.
- 'Patriotism as pastime; the appeal of fenianism in the mid-1860s' in Irish Historical Studies, xxii, no. 87 (March 1981), pp 239-250.
- 'Anglo-French tensions and the origins of fenianism' in F.S.L. Lyons and R.A.J. Hawkins, Ireland under the union: varieties of tension (Oxford, 1980), pp 149-71.
Edited works
- (With Christian Noack and Lindsay Janssens) Holodomor and Gorta Mór: histories, memories and representations of famine in the Ukraine and Ireland (London, New York and Delhi, 2012)
- (With Jennifer Kelly) Associational culture in Ireland and abroad (Dublin, 2010)
- (With Enda Delaney) National questions: reflections on Daniel O'Connell and contemporary Ireland (Dublin, 2000)
- (With Mary Cullen, Jacqueline Hill and Colm Lennon) Religion, conflict and co-existence in Ireland: essays presented to Monsignor Patrick Corish (Dublin, 1990)
Published on microfiche by the Irish Committee of Historical Sciences
- Writings on Irish History 1983 (Dublin, 1985)
- Writings on Irish History 1981 and 1982 (Dublin, 1984)
- Writings on Irish History 1979 and 1980 (Dublin, 1982)