Dr Allan Blackstock (Reader in History, University of Ulster)
Allan Blackstock was born in Belfast where, after a working in industry, he entered third level education as a mature student. After graduation, he worked for a period as an archivist in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and has also provided historical consultancy for various museums. He taught at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) in the School of Modern History and the Institute of Irish Studies before joining the University of Ulster in 2002 where, in addition to conventional teaching, he has been involved in developing e-learning programmes in Irish Cultural Heritages. He was promoted to Reader in Irish Cultural Heritages in 2005. In 2001 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and in 2006 to the editorial board of the Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies.
He graduated with a BA (Hons) degree in English and Modern History at QUB in 1988 where he also completed his PhD in 1993 and gained a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in 1995. He also attained an Adult and Further Education Teacher’s Certificate at the Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education in 1990. In 2005 he gained a certificate in e-tutoring.
He is the author of An Ascendancy Army: The Irish Yeomanry, 1796-1834 (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 1998) and Double Traitors: the Belfast Volunteers and Yeomen, 1778-1828 (Belfast, 2000), as well as numerous scholarly articles.
Talks
Monday morning, ‘A sense of place in Ulster history’
Tuesday evening, ‘The Belfast Charitable Society’
Thursday evening, ‘W. R. Rodgers: writer and broadcaster’
Saturday morning, ‘Radical Presbyterians in north-west Ulster’
Dr William Roulston (Research Director, Ulster Historical Foundation)
William is a native of Bready, County Tyrone and graduated in History from the University of Ulster in 1994. He carried out the research for his PhD in the School of Archaeology and Palaeoecology at Queen’s University, Belfast, and was awarded his doctorate in 2003. He joined the staff of the Ulster Historical Foundation in 1997 as a researcher. In 2006 he was appointed Research Director in succession to Dr Brian Trainor.
He is the author of a number of books, including Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors (2005), Restoration Strabane, 1660-1714 (2007) and (co-edited with Eileen Murphy) Fermanagh: History and Society (2004), as well other contributions to journals and academic history books. He has lectured widely on history and genealogy in the United States, Britain and Ireland. He has also worked with the BBC on radio and television programmes relating to local and family history.
He is a Member of Council of both the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland and the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society. In 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
Talks
Monday morning, ‘Researching Ulster ancestors’
Tuesday evening, ‘The Abercorns of Barons Court’
Dr Brian Lambkin and Dr Patrick Fitzgerald (Centre for Migration Studies)
Monday morning, ‘Migration in Irish History, 1607-2007′
Robert Corbett (Belfast City Council) and Ian Montgomery (PRONI)
Monday evening, ‘Belfast City Hall’
Dr Eull Dunlop (local historian)
Wednesday afternoon, ‘Here and there: some thoughts on Ulster’s migration story’
Pamela McIlveen (Research Officer, Ulster Historical Foundation)
Friday evening, ‘Jewish and Italian communities in Belfast’
