About

WELCOME.

Dr. Chris Lawlor is an award-winning historian and author of short stories. He is a former

head of the history department of Méanscoil Iognáid Rís, Naas, County Kildare, and lives in

Dunlavin, Co. Wicklow. He is married to Margaret and they have three sons, Declan, Jason

and Michael. Chris holds a B.A. and an M.A. from Maynooth University and a Ph.D. from St.

Patrick’s College, D.C.U. Chris continues to write and publish during his retirement. He is a

prolific author of history books, and a contributor of articles, essays and stories to magazines,

journals and anthologies. He won the Dunlavin Festival of Arts Short Story Award in 2001,

the Lord Walter Fitzgerald Prize for Original Historical Research in 2003 and the Irish

Chiefs’ Prize for History in 2013. He was also a prize winner in the 2018 Ireland’s Own

Short Story Competition. Chris is vice-chairman of the West Wicklow Historical Society and

co-editor of the society’s biennial Journal.

In addition to writing, Chris has lectured in many parts of Ireland, and in places as diverse as

the Irish Centre, Hammersmith, London and the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has

spoken on radio in Sydney, and has been a contributor on historical television programmes.

These include a documentary on R.T.E. (Ireland’s national broadcaster) entitled Great Irish

journeys – Michael Dwyer and an episode of Irish TV’s Wicklow County Matters series,

which featured a section on the history of Dunlavin. He was a principal contributor to the

Bodhrán Films documentary Dunlavin Green, which was released on D.V.D. Chris also

worked as a historical consultant on television programmes, including the Aughavannagh

episode of the series Cé a Chónaigh i Mo Theachsa? (which was aired by Irish-language

broadcaster T.G.4.), the West Wicklow episode of Lesser spotted Ireland (shown on U.T.V.

Ireland), and the Emma Willis episode of Who do you think you are? (which was broadcast

on B.B.C.1).

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Photo credit Dave Barrett [DAVBAR images]

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