THE TAOISEACH IS off to Cambridge University today to celebrate the creation of a new Irish history job.

Micheál Martin will deliver an address at Trinity College (not the one in Dublin, but a constituent college of Cambridge University) later this afternoon to mark the establishment of a permanent Chair of Irish History at the university.

The new role, known as the Childers Chair, is named after former Irish president Erskine Childers and his father Robert Erskine Childers, both Cambridge alumni and major figures in Irish political history.

The professorship has been funded through a €4.3 million endowment from the Government’s Reconciliation Fund, which aims to support better relations within Northern Ireland, between North and South, and between Ireland and Great Britain.

Funding for the new position was announced by the government in November.

Speaking ahead of the visit, Martin said he was “delighted” to mark the establishment the new chair in Cambridge.

“This new Chair will deepen and enrich scholarship and build a greater understanding of the complex and interlinked political, economic and social histories of Ireland and Britain, and how these histories entwined to shape our two countries and the evolving relationship between us,” Martin said.