Rory Sweetman (born 1956) is a professional New Zealand historian. He teaches at the

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate u ...

in modern Irish history and has published widely on New Zealand’s ethnic and religious past.

Early life

Sweetman was born in Ireland and spent his childhood there and in New Zealand. He received his secondary education at

St Peter's College, Auckland St Peter's College ( mi, Te Kura Teitei o Hāto Petera) is a Catholic church, Catholic secondary school single-sex education, for boys in the Edmund Ignatius Rice, Edmund Rice tradition, and dedicated to St Peter. it is located in the Auckland CBD ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. He commenced his tertiary studies at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

. He has history degrees from the Universities of

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

(

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

) (BA (Hons) 1981) and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

(

Peterhouse Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite o ...

) (Ph.D, 1991). Sweetman's doctorate from Cambridge University was on the subject, ''New Zealand Catholicism, War, Politics and the Irish Issue 1912-22''.Otago Boys' High School Foundation Newsletter 31 December 2010, Sesquicentennial Celebration Book.
(retrieved 10 January 2011
Wayback Machine archive
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Academic career

Sweetman has specialised on the history of the Irish in New Zealand especially in the areas of religion, education, sectarianism and their engagement in general New Zealand politics. He helped develop the modern Irish history programme at the

from 1997 until 2003. He is completing biographies of Patrick Moran, first Catholic bishop of Dunedin 1869-95, and Henry William Cleary, editor of the

New Zealand Tablet The ''New Zealand Tablet'' was a weekly Catholic periodical published in Dunedin from 1873 to 1996. History Originally aimed at the influx of Irish immigrants to the new country, the ''New Zealand Tablet'' was founded by the first Bishop of Duned ...

1898-1910 and 6th Catholic bishop of Auckland 1910-29. He has written about the

sedition Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, estab ...

trial of Bishop James Michael Liston and he has written a history of the integration of private schools (mostly Catholic) in New Zealand. He has written a number of institutional histories including a history of

Otago Boys' High School , motto_translation = "The ‘right’ learning builds a heart of oak" , type = State secondary, day and boarding , established = ; years ago , streetaddress= 2 Arthur Street , region = Dunedin , state = Otago , zipcod ...

which was published in 2013 in relation to its

sesquicentennial An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saints. ...

and, more centrally to his academic interests, "Defending Trinity College Dublin, Easter 1916: Anzacs and the Rising".Gerard Horn, review of "Defending Trinity College Dublin, Easter 1916: Anzacs and the Rising"
by Rory Sweetman, Four Courts Press, , ''Dublin Review of Books'', Issue 123, June 2020 (Retrieved 6 June 2020)

Publications

Amongst Sweetman's published works are: * ''Bishop in the dock : the sedition trial of James Liston'', Auckland University Press, 1997. * ''A fair and just solution? : a history of the integration of private schools in New Zealand'', Dunmore Press, Palmerston North, 2002. * ''Faith and fraternalism : a history of the Hibernian Society in New Zealand, 1869-2000'', Hibernian Society, Wellington, 2002. * ''Above the City: A History of Otago Boys' High School 1863-2013'', Otago Boys' High School Foundation, Dunedin, 2013. * ''Defending Trinity College Dublin, Easter 1916: Anzacs and the Rising, Four Courts Press'', 2020,

External links

(retrieved 17 February 2011)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sweetman, Rory 1956 births People educated at St Peter's College, Auckland University of Otago faculty Living people University of Auckland alumni Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge 20th-century New Zealand historians 20th-century Irish historians 21st-century New Zealand historians Writers from Auckland Historians of religion