Edel Bhreathnach

Edel Bhreathnach is an Irish historian and academic and former CEO of the Discovery Programme.

Bhreathnach was a Tara Research Fellow for the Discovery Programme from 1992 to 2000. In 2005 she was appointed Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute for the study of Irish History and Civilization, at University College Dublin. In 2013, she left her role in the Ó Cléirigh Institute to rejoin the Discovery Programme as CEO. Her particular areas of interest concern the history of Tara in County Meath, dynastic politics in the kingdoms of Mide and Leinster.She is currently part of the Monastic Ireland network and has published a major study on monasticism in Ireland AD900-1250 (Four Courts Press, 2024).