
I am a writer, historian and university educator, from Co. Kerry, Ireland, with a passion for exploring historical links between Ireland and Spain.
I am currently working on a book on Spanish-Irish relations and connections stretching from the neolithic to the present, and have a particular interest in the Camino de Santiago and the cult of Santiago/St James.
Past random acts of academia include: standalone articles on the short stories of Ernest Hemingway, an Irish genealogy of D. Felipe V of Spain, Irish involvement in the Crusades, Viking Dublin, a book on an Irish language primer written for Queen Elizabeth I of England, a series of studies on the world-famous Book of Kells, and entries in the Encyclopædia Britannica. In addition, I have co-authored articles in areas as varied as the history of time and using Wikipedia as a teaching tool.
Professional
I hold a PhD in medieval Irish history and literature from the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge (2009), am a member of the Irish Association of Professional Historians, and since 2021 a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. I have taught and held research positions at the universities of Cambridge, Helsinki, University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and Maynooth University. I currently teach in Maynooth University, on the Critical Skills programme.