I was educated in UCD where I did VIIIb 'pure' History. Following the award of a First Class Honours degree, I embarked on an edition of the only surviving ecclesiastical 16th century 'Act Book' for Ireland. This is a Latin text of some 150 folios. After that I spent some years in Cambridge first as a benefactor's scholar and then as a fellow of St. John's College. Since returning to UCD my work has increasingly focused on church history and the history of belief in Ireland in the period from 1500-1700. As Director of the Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute I work in a unique partnership with the Irish Franciscans whose transfer of manuscripts and rare books has been one of the most significant donations ever made to an Irish university.BA (NUI) 1990MA (NUI) 1991PhD (Cantab.) 1996Director of the Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute, http://www.ucd.ie/mocleirigh/index.htmMember of the Irish Manuscripts Commission since 2006.I was awarded a UCD President's Research fellowship for 2010-2011. The project entitled Making Ireland European, Making Europe Irish: the Irish Franciscan project 1600-1690 involves intensive study of early modern libraries in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Ireland and Italy.