Paul Anthony Elliott Bew, Baron Bew (born 22 January 1950), is a British historian from

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

and a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

. He has worked at

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

since 1979, and is currently Professor of Irish Politics, a position he has held since 1991.

Academic career

Bew was born in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

. He attended

Campbell College, Belfast Campbell College located in Belfast, Northern Ireland and founded in 1894 comprises a preparatory school department (junior age) and a senior Northern Ireland 'Voluntary Grammar' school, the latter meaning, in terms of provision of education, a ...

before studying for his BA and PhD at

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...

. His first book, ''Land and the National Question in Ireland, 1858–82'' was a revisionist study that challenged nationalist historiography by examining the clash between landowners and tenants as well as the conflict between large and small tenants. His third book, a short study of

Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell (27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1875 to 1891, also acting as Leader of the Home Rule League from 1880 to 1882 and then Leader of the ...

, challenged some of the arguments of the award-winning biography of Parnell by

F. S. L. Lyons Francis Stewart Leland Lyons (11 November 1923 – 21 September 1983) was an Irish historian and academic who was Provost of Trinity College Dublin from 1974 to 1981. Biography Known as Le among his friends and family, Lyons was born in Derry, ...

, though Lyons, one of the "doyens" of modern Irish history, acknowledged the then young historian's arguments by stating that "Nothing Dr Bew writes is without interest." Bew's central thesis is that Parnell was a fundamentally conservative figure whose ultimate aim was to secure a continuing position of leadership for the Protestant gentry in a Home Rule Ireland. In 2007,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

published Bew's ''Ireland: The Politics of Enmity 1789–2006'', which forms part of the ''Oxford History of Modern Europe'' series. The book received positive reviews. Bew acted as a historical advisor to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry between 1998 and 2001. Bew was also involved in the project by

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

to record interviews by former participants in the Irish "

Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

", including former republican and loyalist paramilitaries. In 2014,

Gerry Adams Gerard Adams ( ga, Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020 ...

criticised Bew's handling of the Boston College project, as well as the journalist

Ed Moloney Edmund "Ed" Moloney (born 1948–9) is an Irish journalist and author best known for his coverage of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and the activities of the Provisional IRA, in particular. He worked for the ''Hibernia'' magazine and ''Magill ...

and the former IRA volunteer

Anthony McIntyre Anthony McIntyre (born 27 June 1957) is a former Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer, writer and historian. He was imprisoned for murder for 18 years in Long Kesh, spending four of those years on the no-wash protest. After his release fr ...

." Adams claimed Bew had deliberately chosen Moloney and McIntyre because they were unsympathetic to Adams. Bew expressed regret over the closure of the project, and stated further oral history projects of the Troubles were now "under a cloud".

Political involvement

Bew's political stance has changed over the years. In a 2004 interview for ''The Guardian'', he stated that "While my language was more obviously

leftwing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

in the 1970s than today, that sympathy has always been there". As a young man, Bew participated in the People's Democracy marches. Bew was briefly a member of a group called the

British and Irish Communist Organisation The British and Irish Communist Organisation (B&ICO) was a small group based in London, Belfast, Cork, and Dublin. Its leader was Brendan Clifford. The group produced a number of pamphlets and regular publications, including ''The Irish Commu ...

, which advocated the Two Nations Theory of Northern Ireland. Bew was also a member of the

Workers' Party of Ireland The Workers' Party ( ga, Páirtí na nOibrithe) is a Marxist–Leninist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It arose as the original Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, but took ...

, then known as Official Sinn Féin. From 1991 to 1993, he served as President of

The Irish Association for Cultural, Economic and Social Relations The Irish Association for Cultural, Economic and Social Relations is a membership-driven forum for the shared concerns of a wide range of organisations and individuals involved in North–South Irish affairs. The Association was founded in 1938 ...

. Later, Bew served as an adviser to

David Trimble William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, (15 October 1944 – 25 July 2022) was a British politician who was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002, and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1995 to 2005. He was ...

. Trimble and Bew are both signatories to the statement of principles of the

Henry Jackson Society The Henry Jackson Society (HJS) is a trans-Atlantic foreign policy and national security think tank, based in the United Kingdom. While describing itself as non-partisan, its outlook has been described variously as neoliberal and as neoconser ...

, which has been characterised as a

neoconservative Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and coun ...

organisation. Bew's contributions to the

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...

process were acknowledged with an appointment to the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

as a

in February 2007. He was created Baron Bew, ''of

Donegore Donegore (historically ''Dunogcurra'', ) is the name of a hill, a townland, a small cluster of residences, and a civil parish in the historic barony of Antrim Upper, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Donegore lies approximately 5 miles (8 km) ...

in the

County of Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

'' on 26 March 2007, and sits as a

crossbencher A crossbencher is an independent or minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and oppositi ...

. Lord Bew was Chair of the

Committee on Standards in Public Life The Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) is an advisory non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom Government, established by John Major in 1994 to advise the Prime Minister on ethical standards of public life. It promotes a code o ...

, an advisory non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom Government, from September 2013 to August 2018. In October 2018, he was appointed as Chairman of the

House of Lords Appointments Commission The House of Lords Appointments Commission is an independent advisory non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It has two roles: *to recommend at least two people a year for appointment as non-party-political life peers who sit on the ...

for a five-year term starting on 1 November 2018.

Personal life

Bew is married to Greta Jones, a history professor at the

University of Ulster sco, Ulstèr Universitie , image = Ulster University coat of arms.png , caption = , motto_lang = , mottoeng = , latin_name = Universitas Ulidiae , established = 1865 – Magee College 1953 - Magee Un ...

, with whom he has one son, John Bew, who is professor of history at the

Department of War Studies, King's College London The Department of War Studies (DWS) is an academic department in the School of Security Studies within the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy at King's College London in London, United Kingdom. Along with other politics and international ...

Bibliography

Monographs

* * * * (with Henry Patterson) * (with Henry Patterson) * * (with Henry Patterson and Ellen Hazelkorn) * * * * * (with Gordon Gillespie) * * * *

Articles

References

External links

Paul Bew's homepage at Queen's University Belfast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bew, Paul 1950 births Living people Historians from Northern Ireland Civil rights activists from Northern Ireland British political scientists Crossbench life peers People's peers People educated at Campbell College Academics of Queen's University Belfast Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge Male non-fiction writers from Northern Ireland Historians of the Land War Member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life Life peers created by Elizabeth II People from Belfast