Rory Sweetman is a professional New Zealand historian. He teaches at the University of Otago

University of Otago

The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 22,000 students enrolled during 2010.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it...

 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, Auckland

St Peter's College is a Catholic college for year 7 to 13 boys . The school, located in Auckland, is one of the largest Catholic schools in New Zealand and is an integrated school under an integration agreement entered into by the Catholic Bishop of Auckland and the Government of New Zealand in...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. He commenced his tertiary studies at the University of Auckland

University of Auckland

The University of Auckland is a university located in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest university in the country and the highest ranked in the 2011 QS World University Rankings, having been ranked worldwide...

. He has history degrees from the Universities of Dublin

University of Dublin

The University of Dublin , corporately designated the Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin , located in Dublin, Ireland, was effectively founded when in 1592 Queen Elizabeth I issued a charter for Trinity College, Dublin, as "the mother of a university" – this date making it...

 (Trinity College

Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

) (BA (Hons) 1981) and Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

 (Peterhouse) (Ph.D, 1991). Sweetman's doctorate from Cambridge University was on the subject, New Zealand Catholicism, War, Politics and the Irish Issue 1912-22.

Academic career

Sweetman has lived in Dunedin

Dunedin

Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...

since 1997. He has spent the last six years teaching Irish history at the University of Otago.

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.

External links

• University of Otago, Dr Rory Sweetman (retrieved 10 January 2011)