Brian Walker

Brian M. Walker is an historian and a political scientist. He is professor emeritus of Irish Studies at Queen’s University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and an honorary member of the Linen Hall Library, Belfast. He was formerly Director of the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen’s, Chairman of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, President of the Linen Hall Library and President of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society. Currently, he is President of the Belfast Literary Society, President of the Federation for Ulster Local Studies, President of the Belfast Civic Trust and Treasurer of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society. He is on the council of the Irish Association and is a member of the Church of Ireland Working Group on Historical Centenaries. Besides academic publications he has written articles for the Belfast Telegraph, the Irish Times, the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent and the Dublin Review of Books. He has appeared in both radio and television events.

Currently his research interests include commemorations, the revolutionary period in Ireland, 1919-23, and Irish political response to the Irish famine, 1847-52.