After some much needed sleep and a well deserved break (I actually went to the seaside, a la a Victorian convalescent) I feel sufficiently reflective to look back on what was undoubtedly the biggest single moment in my academic career so far.I delivered my first lecture on Thursday.I will happily put it out there in the public domain that I cannot remember a time when I did not wish that such a moment would come. Standing behind that lectern, with my notes on the desk, my power point on the overhead and a collection of undergraduates in front of me, it dawned on me that I had actually achieved what I had set out to. Well, almost achieved – I had to spit the words out first.It all went by in a bit of a blur. Rather like if Sebastian Vettel was driving the history of Ireland round a race course, with corners with names like ‘historiography’,’Catholic emancipation’, ‘the Famine’, ‘disestablishment’, ‘Home Rule’, and ‘Ulster Unionism’. I even did a bit of nervous Christian Horner foot jiggling on the corner of the lectern.Perhaps the most useful element of the whole thing was the feedback I very kindly got from my supervisor and my fellow PhDers.

Continued here - 

…aaaaand breathe!