Question: Diarmuid Whelan wrote his doctoral thesis on the Irish politician whose opinion on the role of Britain in Ireland changed after what event?

Context paragraphs:
Teissier affair: The Teissier affair was a controversy that occurred in France in 2001.  French astrologer Élizabeth Teissier was awarded a Doctorate in Sociology by Paris Descartes University for a doctoral thesis in which she argued that astrology was being oppressed by science.  Her work was contested by the scientific community within the context of the science wars, and compared to the Sokal hoax.  Criticisms included the alleged failure to work within the field of sociology and also lacking the necessary scientific rigour for a doctoral thesis in any scientific field.  The university and jury who awarded the degree were harshly criticised, though both they and Teissier had supporters and defenders.

Željko Fajfrić: Željko Fajfrić (; born February 24, 1957) is a Serbian professor in law and author on history.  A lawyer by profession, he has two doctoral thesis on law, and works in his town of birth.  Fajfrić was born in 1957 in Šid, Yugoslavia (now Serbia), where he finished primary school and gymnasium.  He graduated from the Faculty of Law in Novi Sad in 1979.  He has a magister's degree in Law from the University of Novi Sad.  In 1994 he finished a doctoral thesis in the Faculty of Law in Kragujevac.  He is the deputy of the President of the Assembly of Šid, Branislav Mauković.

Conor Cruise O'Brien: Conor Cruise O'Brien (3 November 1917 – 18 December 2008) often nicknamed "The Cruiser", was an Irish politician, writer, historian and academic.  His opinion on the role of Britain in Ireland and in Northern Ireland changed during the 1970s, in response to the outbreak of The Troubles.  He saw opposing nationalist and unionist traditions as irreconcilable and switched from a nationalist to a unionist view of Irish politics and history.  O'Brien's outlook was always radical and the positions he took were seldom orthodox.  He summarised his position as intending "to administer an electric shock to the Irish psyche".

Mauricio De la Maza-Benignos: Mauricio de la Maza-Benignos (July 27, 1970 –) is a Mexican Conservationist, Naturalist and Zoologist.  He is also a member of Mexico's National System of Researchers.  In addition to his work in ichthyology, he is an agronomist and zootechnician, a jurist, an administrator, and an editor.  He earned his bachelor's degree at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, a Master of Business Administration at The University of Lancaster, a Ph.D. summa cum laude, at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, and studied Law, under a merit scholarship at the TecMilenio University.  In 1994 he obtained the “Best students of Mexico Award” by the “National Permanent Committee for the Best Students of Mexico”, and in 2014 he was awarded first place in the “Dr. José Álvarez Del Villar” prize for his doctoral thesis, by the Mexican Ichthyology Society.  He developed his doctoral thesis under the direction of Professor and Ichthyologist Ma.  de Lourdes Lozano-Vilano, with whom he continues to do research.  He also collaborates with geneticist and ichthyologist Dr. Evan W. Carson at UNM, mainly in the area of conservation genetics.  In 2015 he was awarded the UANL Research Prize to the best scholar paper in the Natural Sciences during 2014.  From 2006―2011, he served as Director for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Chihuahuan Desert Program; and from 2011― as Conservation Science Director and Chief Executive Officer for Mexican NGO, Pronatura Noreste.

Christopher Byrne (politician): Christopher Michael Byrne (1886 – 5 September 1957) was an Irish politician whose career as a Teachta Dála (TD) and Senator came in two distinct periods, separated by a decade's gap and a change of party.

Thomas Carter (TD): Thomas Carter (29 March 1882 – 11 September 1951) was an Irish politician whose career spanned two different time periods and political parties.  A shopkeeper, he was elected unopposed as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála (TD) to the 2nd Dáil at the 1921 general election for the Leitrim–Roscommon North constituency.  He supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and voted in favour of it.  He was re-elected unopposed as a pro-Treaty Sinn Féin TD at the 1922 general election.  He was re-elected as a Cumann na nGaedheal TD for the Leitrim–Sligo constituency at the 1923 general election.  He resigned on 30 October 1924 and the subsequent by-election held on 11 March 1925 was won by Samuel Holt of Sinn Féin.

Leif Stenberg: Leif Stenberg (Ph.D) is the former director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University.  Leif Stenberg received his B.A degree from Lund University in 1987 and wrote his doctoral thesis on the Islamization of science, supervised by Jan Hjärpe, in 1996.  Stenberg's work has been influenced by both Jan Hjärpe and Michel Foucault, which is apparent in his doctoral thesis, where Foucauldian concepts and definitions are used.  His interests also include contemporary sufism, which he has been actively researching since the mid-1990s.

Diarmuid Whelan: Dr. Diarmuid Whelan (11 August 1971 – 1 June 2010) was an Irish academic in the history department of UCC.  Born in Cork, he studied at Christian Brothers College, Cork and UCC.  He wrote his doctoral thesis on Conor Cruise O'Brien.

Pál Schmitt academic misconduct controversy: The Pál Schmitt academic misconduct scandal refers to allegations of plagiarism concerning the 1992 doctoral thesis and the circumstances of the doctoral defence of the President of Hungary Pál Schmitt, which led to Schmitt's resignation from his presidential post.  The scandal broke in January 2012, when Hungarian news organizations published a number of articles claiming that about 197 pages of Schmitt's 215-page thesis had been lifted from works by other, foreign scholars, without giving appropriate credit.

Mikołaj Kruszewski: Mikołaj Habdank Kruszewski, (Russianized, "Nikolay Vyacheslavovich Krushevsky", Никола́й Вячесла́вович Круше́вский) (December 18, 1851, Lutsk – November 12, 1887, Kazan) was a Polish linguist, most significant as the co-inventor of the concept of phonemes, and relative of Anya Lucia Kruszewski.  From 1883, he was a professor at Kazan University.  His notable works include "On Sound Alternation" (1881) and "Outline of Linguistic Science" (1883).  The former is actually the introduction to his master's thesis on morphophonemic alternation in Old Slavic (the section focusing on the theoretical background for the empirical work in the body of the thesis) and the latter is his doctoral thesis.

Supporting paragraphs: Diarmuid Whelan Conor Cruise O'Brien
Answer: The Troubles