The Lord Bew | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Bew in 2019 | |
| Chair of theHouse of Lords Appointments Commission | |
| In office 25 October 2018 – 26 October 2023 | |
| Preceded by | The Lord Kakkar |
| Succeeded by | The Baroness Deech |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| Assumed office 26 March 2007 Life peerage | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1950-01-22)22 January 1950 (age 75) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | None (crossbencher) |
| Spouse | Greta Jones |
| Children | John Bew |
| Education | Campbell College, Belfast |
| Alma mater | Pembroke College, Cambridge (BA,PhD) |
Paul Anthony Elliott Bew, Baron Bew (born 22 January 1950[1]),[2] is a British historian fromNorthern Ireland and alife peer. He has worked atQueen's University Belfast since 1979, and is currently Professor of Irish Politics, a position he has held since 1991.[2]
Bew was born on 22 January 1950 inBelfast. He was educated at Brackenber House School, andCampbell College, agrammar school in Belfast.[3] He studied for his BA and PhD atPembroke College, Cambridge. Hisdoctoral thesis was titled "The Politics of the Irish Land War, 1879-1882".[4]
His first book,Land and the National Question in Ireland, 1858–82 was arevisionist study that challenged nationalisthistoriography by examining the clash between landowners and tenants as well as the conflict between large and small tenants. His third book, a short study ofCharles Stewart Parnell published in 1980, challenged some of the arguments of the award-winning 1977 biography of Parnell byF. S. L. Lyons, though Lyons, one of the "doyens" of modern Irish history, acknowledged the younger historian's arguments by stating that "Nothing Dr Bew writes is without interest."[5] Bew's central thesis was that Parnell was a fundamentally conservative figure whose ultimate aim was to secure a continuing position of leadership for the Protestant gentry in a Home Rule Ireland.
In 2007,Oxford University Press published Bew'sIreland: The Politics of Enmity 1789–2006, which forms part of theOxford History of Modern Europe series. The book received positive reviews.[5][6][7]
Bew acted as a historical advisor to theBloody Sunday Inquiry between 1998 and 2001.[8]
Bew was also involved in theBelfast Project, aBoston College initiative to record interviews with former participants inthe Troubles, including former republican and loyalist paramilitaries.[9] In 2014,Gerry Adams criticised Bew's handling of the Boston College project, as well as the journalistEd Moloney and the former IRA volunteerAnthony McIntyre.[9][10] Adams claimed Bew had deliberately chosen Moloney and McIntyre because they were unsympathetic to Adams.[9][10] Bew expressed regret over the closure of the project, and stated further oral history projects of the Troubles were now "under a cloud".[11]
Bew's political stance has changed over the years. In a 2004 interview forThe Guardian, he stated that "While my language was more obviouslyleftwing in the 1970s than today, that sympathy has always been there".[2] As a young man, Bew participated in thePeople's Democracy marches. Bew was briefly a member of a group called theBritish and Irish Communist Organisation, which advocated thetwo nations theory of Northern Ireland.[12] Bew was also a member of theWorkers' Party, then known as Official Sinn Féin.[13]
From 1991 to 1993, he served as President ofThe Irish Association for Cultural, Economic and Social Relations.
Bew is aunionist,[2] and in 2019 called for the British government to do more to champion the union and recommended introducing a Department of the Union.[14] He served as an "informal adviser" toDavid Trimble.[2] Trimble and Bew are both signatories to the statement of principles of theHenry Jackson Society,[15] which has been characterised as aneoconservative organisation.[16]
In 2007, Bew was selected by the independentHouse of Lords Appointments Commission to be made a member of theHouse of Lords.[17] His contributions to theGood Friday Agreement process were acknowledged with an appointment.[18] He was createdBaron Bew,ofDonegore in theCounty of Antrim on 26 March 2007,[19] and sits in theHouse of Lords as acrossbencher.[20] He wasintroduced to the Lords on 15 May 2007, supported byBaroness O'Neill of Bengarve (a fellow academic and crossbencher) and Lord Trimble (i.e. his friend David Trimble).[21] He made hismaiden speech on 23 July 2007 during a debate on political donations in Northern Ireland.[22]
Lord Bew was Chair of theCommittee on Standards in Public Life, an advisory non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom Government, from September 2013 to August 2018.[23] In October 2018, he was appointed as Chairman of theHouse of Lords Appointments Commission for a five-year term starting on 1 November 2018.[24] He was succeeded byBaroness Deech on 26 October 2023.[25]
Bew is married to Greta Jones, a history professor at theUniversity of Ulster, with whom he has one son,John Bew, who is professor of history at theDepartment of War Studies, King's College London.[2]
Gerry Adams has welcomed the College's decision to hand back the tapes. "TheBoston CollegeBelfast Project was flawed from the beginning." he said yesterday. "It was conceived by Lord Paul Bew, " he said. He proposed Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre despite the fact that both individuals were "extremely hostile" me and Sinn Fein, Mr Adams said
The prestige of Boston College will continue to grow but a project which had been designed as one of the jewels in the crown of a great library has gone. Other similar projects to use oral history as a means of dealing with the past in the Troubles are also, to say the least, under a cloud.
| Other offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Chairman of theHouse of Lords Appointments Commission 2018–2023 | Succeeded by |
| Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Gentlemen Baron Bew | Followed by |
