Jonathan Eric Bardon (born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, 1941 – died in Belfast, 21 April 2020), was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

Early life

Bardon was born in Dublin in 1941 and graduated from Trinity College, Dublin (TCD), in 1963. Shortly thereafter, in 1964, he moved to

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 Kingdom ...

to begin his teaching career at Orangefield Boys Secondary School. While in Belfast, he enrolled at Queens University, Belfast, where he received a Diploma in Education, also in 1964. Living in

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 ...

as a young man during the beginning of

the 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 " ...

, he credits two things that piqued his fascination with it, while remaining nonpolitical: his early teaching experiences educating young boys, both

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

, in Belfast; and a five feature commission he received from the now-defunct ''Sunday Times'' to write about and research the Battle of the Somme.

Career

Bardon is best known for his critically acclaimed text, ''A History of Ulster''. The book examines, in detail, the cultural, social, economic, and political arenas of the province, beginning with the early settlements and progressing linearly to present-day

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

. He has also written numerous radio and television programmes on the subject of

. Most recently he was commissioned by

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...

to create a two hundred and forty-episode series entitled ''A Short History of Ireland''. The final episode aired on 18 March 2007. In 2002, Bardon was appointed an OBE for "services to community life". Bardon died in Belfast on 21 April 2020, having contracted

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

. He already had underlying health issues, including lung cancer.

Bibliography

*''A History of Ulster''. Blackstaff Press, 1992. *''A History of Ireland in 250 Episodes''. 2008. *''Belfast: A Century''. Blackstaff Press, 1999. *''Belfast: An Illustrated History''. Blackstaff Press, 1982. *''Belfast: 1000 Years''. Blackstaff Press, 1985. *''Beyond the Studio: A History of BBC Northern Ireland''. Blackstaff Press, 2000. *''Dublin: One Thousand Years of Wood Quay''. Blackstaff Press, 1988. (co-authored with Stephen Conlin). *''The Plantation Of Ulster''. Gill and Macmillan, 2011. *''Hallelujah - The Story of a Musical Genius and the City That Brought his Masterpiece to Life''. Gill and Macmillan, 2015. *''A Narrow Sea: The Irish-Scottish Connection in 120 Episodes''. Gill Books, 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bardon, Jonathan 20th-century Irish historians 21st-century Irish historians Officers of the Order of the British Empire 1941 births 2020 deaths