Professor Tom Inglis

At Forum 2011, Professor Tom Inglis, responded to Conor O' Clery who gave the Mary Holland Commemorative Lecture. 

Tom Inglis did a Bachelor of Social Science in UCD and for six years worked for the Catholic Church as a social researcher; mainly doing social surveys and writing reports. During this time he did a Master’s degree and later he went to Southern Illinois University where he completed a Ph.D.

He returned to UCD’s Department of Sociology for three years and published Moral Monopoly. In 1987, he became Director of AONTAS, the National Association of Adult Education. He is still interested in the theory and practice of adult learning.

In 1991, he rejoined UCD. His interest in Catholic Ireland broadened to look at sexuality and the media. In 1998, he published a bigger and better second of Moral Monopoly, as well as Lessons in Irish Sexuality.

Two years later, he co-edited Religion and Politics (2000). Truth, Power and Lies (2003) was a sociological examination of what became known as the Kerry Babies case.

His latest book Global Ireland: Same Difference (2008) is an examination of how globalisation has influence Irish culture over the last 50 years.

Dr Inglis teaches courses on Contemporary Irish Society, Identity, Diversity and Social Change, Body and Soul, Sociological Theory and Cultural Theory and Analysis. He is President of the Sociological Association of Ireland and a former editor of the Irish Journal of Sociology. He was co-director of the Identity, Diversity and Citizenship research project in the Geary Institute. His main areas of research are identity, cultural globalisation and secularisation.