Ulster Local History Trust

Conference 2010

Speaker Profiles

Professor Aidan Clarke was professor of history at Trinity College Dublin, also serving at various times as head of the department of modern history and vice provost of the university. He was formerly president of the Irish Historical Society and the Royal Irish Academy and is editor of the 1641 Depositions Project, which are now available online and which are to be published by the Irish Manuscripts Commission. His many publications include The Old English in Ireland, 1625-42 (1966), Prelude to restoration in Ireland (1999) as well as contributions to the New History of Ireland series.

Dr David Edwards is a Senior Lecturer at University College Cork. He is the author/editor of a number of important volumes dealing with early modern Ireland, including British sources for Irish history, 1485-1641 (1997), The Ormond lordship in County Kilkenny, 1515-1642: The rise and fall of Butler feudal power (2003), Regions and rulers in Ireland, 1100-1650 (2004) and Age of atrocity: violence and political conflict in early modern Ireland (2007).

Professor John Morrill is professor of British and Irish History at the University of Cambridge. Professor Morrill is a principal investigator on the 1641 Depositions Project, and the author/editor of a wide range of books and articles on early modern Ireland and Britain, including The Nature of the English Revolution (1994), The British Problem 1534-1707 (1996), The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor and Stuart Britain (Oxford University Press, 1996) and Oliver Cromwell (2007).

Professor Jane Ohlmeyer holds the Erasmus Smith’s Chair of Modern History at Trinity College Dublin. She is the author/editor of numerous books and articles including British interventions in early modern Ireland (Cambridge, 2005), Civil war and restoration in the three Stuart kingdoms (1993), Ireland from Independence to occupation, 1641-1660 (1995) and Political thought in seventeenth-century Ireland (2000). Professor Ohlmeyer, a principal investigator on the 1641 Depositions Project, is currently preparing for publication a study dealing with the Irish peerage in the seventeenth century.

Dr William Roulston is Research Director for the Ulster Historical Foundation. His publications include Restoration Strabane, 1660-1714 (2007) and Researching Scots-Irish ancestors (2005) as well as a number of articles dealing with the history of Ulster in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Dr Roulston is currently writing a book on Scottish settlement in seventeenth-century Ireland.

Dr Brendan Scott currently lectures in sixteenth-century Irish history at NUI Maynooth. He is the author/editor of a number of books and articles including Religion and reformation in the Tudor diocese of Meath (2006), Cavan 1609-1653: plantation, war and religion (2007) and Culture and society in early modern Breifne/Cavan (2009). He is also the editor of the local history journal, Breifne. Dr Scott, a ULHT trustee, is editing the 1622 Royal Visitations for publication with the Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Session Chairs

Doreen Corcoran MBE is a ULHT trustee. She has been involved in local history for many years and is a past chairman of the Federation for Ulster Local Studies as well as a former secretary (1981-87). She is currently chairperson of the Ulster History Circle, which places blue plaques on buildings that connect with famous Ulster personalities. Mrs Corcoran is also a member of Carrickfergus Historical Society.

John Dooher is a ULHT trustee. He has served two terms as chairman of the Federation for Ulster Local Studies and was editor of its journal Ulster Local Studies for several years. He is a prime mover in Strabane Historical Society and was joint editor of The Fair River Valley, a significant history of Strabane. He taught history in St Colman’s High School for over 30 years.

Jack Johnston is currently chairman of the Ulster Local History Trust. He has been involved in teaching, writing and publishing local history for almost 40 years and has worked over much of Ulster and North Connacht. He is a former trustee of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and was secretary of Clogher Historical Society for 18 years. He is currently director of the annual William Carleton Summer School.