I am catholic priest and a member of the Jesuit order. A former president of the Irish historical society, I have taught at several colleges and universities in Britain and Ireland and have held visiting professorships in the United States and Korea. In the summer of 2012 I will be a visiting professor at the University of Western Australia.

At present I teach the general survey course on the History of Christianity for the BA in Theology degree and the BD. In addition I teach an optional course on the history of the development of the papacy. I also look after three of the areas for the International Programmes BD.

The history of Irish Christianity; nineteenth and twentieth century British and Irish history, especially the relationship between church and state; the history of Catholicism in Ireland from the sixteenth century to the present; revolutionary violence and the development of militant Irish nationalism, nineteenth and twentieth century church history.

At present I am doing some further research on the attitude of the Irish Catholic Church to WWII.

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Between 1988 and 2010 I wrote some 30 articles on a variety of historical, ecclesiastical and political topics in newspapers and magazines such as:

America; History Ireland; Scripture in Church; Thinking Faith; The Catholic Herald; The Furrow; The Guardian; The Irish News; The Irish Times; The Month; Priests and People; The Tablet ; The Irish Catholic. In addition between September 2001 and June 2002 I had a weekly column in The Irish Catholic entitled ‘The Church in History’.

From 1985-2011, I published some seventy book reviews in various journals and newspapers including:

Bullán: An Irish Studies Journal; History; History Ireland; Heythrop Journal; Irish Studies Review; Irish Theological Quarterly; Journal of Contemporary History; Journal of Ecclesiastical History; The Catholic Herald; The Catholic Historical Review; The Furrow; The Irish Catholic; The Irish Times; The Month; Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review.