English
Professor Richard English MA PhD FBA MRIA FRHistS
Professor of Politics
Head of School
Contact Details
tel: ++44 (0) 28 9097 3328
email: r.english@qub.ac.uk
Teaching Areas
Irish politics and history.
Research Interests
Irish and British Politics and History; Nationalism; the State; Political Violence and Terrorism; Intellectual History.
Current PhD Supervision Areas
Irish politics and history; terrorism and political violence; the politics and history of nationalism; intellectual history; Irish political biography; Irish-British relations.
Selected Publications
- Terrorism: How to Respond (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)
- Irish Freedom: The History of Nationalism in
Ireland ( London : Pan Macmillan, 2006) - Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA (
London : Pan Macmillan, 2003) - Ernie O'Malley: IRA Intellectual (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998)
- Radicals and the Republic: Socialist Republicanism in the Irish Free State 1925-1937 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994)
- Rethinking British Decline
(
Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000 - co-edited with Michael Kenny) - The State: Historical and Political Dimensions (London: Routledge, 1999 - co-edited with Charles Townshend)
- Unionism in Modern
Ireland : New Perspectives on Politics and Culture (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996 – co-edited with Graham Walker)
Richard English, Terrorism: How to Respond
‘If you want to read one book which explains the phenomenon of terrorism, gives you a good historical grasp of the subject while also providing a dispassionate roadmap to guide you through the term’s complex meanderings and its many intellectual cul-de-sacs, then this is the book for you. It is outstanding: short and beautifully written, it manages also to be thoroughly on top of its subject’ Irish Times
‘Richard English is the author of outstanding histories of the IRA and Irish nationalism. Thoughtful scholarship lies at the heart of his fine analysis of terrorism as both a military and a political problem … In exploring this huge subject, English makes many telling points … while using history to console us with the thought that many terrorist movements eventually atrophy, provided societies have the resilience to see them out’ Literary Review
Richard English, Irish Freedom: The History of Nationalism in Ireland
Winner of the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize 2007
Winner of the Political Studies Association of Ireland Book Prize 2007
‘superb survey of Irish nationalism … fine work of scholarship … lucidly written dissection of nationalism in Ireland over the last three centuries … ambitious, epic work on Irish nationalism’ Observer
‘a brilliant one-volume history of Ireland … [a] formidable study’ Guardian
Richard English, Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA
Winner of the Political Studies Association Politics Book of the Year Award 2003
‘an essential book … closely-reasoned, formidably intelligent and utterly compelling … required reading across the political spectrum … important and riveting’ The Times
‘a work which eclipses all other studies of the IRA and must now be regarded as the single most important book on the topic … a penetrating and rewarding study’ Times Literary Supplement
Richard English was born in 1963 in Belfast, and has worked at Queen’s University since 1989. He read Modern History at Oxford University, then studied for his PhD with Charles Townshend at Keele University. He has been a frequent media commentator on Irish politics and history and on terrorism and political violence, including work for the BBC, ITV, RTE, NPR, the Irish Times, the Financial Times and the Times Literary Supplement. In 2009 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA).
