Raymond Gillespie remembered

It is with great regret that we note the passing of Professor Raymond Gillespie. A prolific and wide-ranging historian, Raymond taught in the Department of History at Maynooth University from 1991 to 2021 and will be remembered as a remarkable teacher and colleague. An incredibly generous scholar he had a particular gift for enthusing and inspiring students and young researchers and many associated with the Society for Irish Economic and Social History will have benefitted from his advice and mentorship – not that the latter is a word that he would ever have used.

Encompassing economic history, urban history, the history of reading, the history of religion and local history, among other areas, his published contributions to Irish history are impossible to summarise in brief. It is sufficient to note here that without his many outstanding contributions the field of Irish history would look very different indeed. An outstanding colleague and a true gentleman, Raymond will be greatly missed by those who knew him and our thoughts at this time are with his wife, Bernadette Cunningham, his family, and his very many friends and colleagues.