Career
He is a leading figure in the subfield of Irish studies in North America. Donnelly is a former president of the American Conference for Irish Studies, and a current co-editor of the journal Éire-Ireland. His research on An Gorta Mór (1845-1851) made him a well-known historian in the debate on whether The Great Hunger was genocide or not.
He is the author of: Captain Rock: The Irish Agrarian Rebellion of 1821-1824.
(2009). Encyclopedia of Irish History and Culture. (2004). editor and chief
The Great Irish Potato Famine. (2001). Irish Popular Culture 1650-1850.
(1999), co-edited with Kerby A. Miller.
Irish Peasants: Violence & Political Unrest, 1780-1914. (1983), co-edited with Samuel Clark. The Land and the People of Nineteenth-Century Cork: The Rural Economy and Land Question.
1975 (which was awarded the of the American Historical Association) Landlord and Tenant in Nineteenth-Century Ireland.
