Paul MacCotter

Dr. Paul MacCotter began his career as a genealogist and independent scholar with an especial interest in the lineages originating during the Anglo-Norman period. Obtaining his MA in 1994 and his PhD in 2006 in UCC, he extended his research interests to include the administrative structures of Anglo-Norman Ireland and of High Medieval Gaelic Ireland.

He has published four books and numerous journal papers in local and national journals, covering such subjects as medieval history, genealogy, family history, surname studies, government history, church history and DNA studies. For a list of his publications click here, and for online versions of many of these http://ucc-ie.academia.edu/PaulMacCotter

He is an accomplished conference and local history speaker. Dr. MacCotter worked as principal historical consultant to the Making Christian Landscapes project in the school of Archaeology in UCC. This was supported by the Heritage Council and involved ground-breaking research into the Early Irish Church in several different locations within Ireland. Later, he won a two year IRCHSS fellowship to study the lands of the Irish Church, in 2010. The results of this innovative research will be published in a volume to be published in 2014.

He is currently performing research on behalf of the Boyle Project of the School of History, UCC. This involves the interaction between the ‘Old English’ gentry and Richard Boyle, the first Earl of Cork. His book, Medieval Ireland: territorial, political and economic divisions, has been described by one reviewer as ‘conceivably, a paradigm shifting work’. MacCotter’s research interests include medieval economic and administrative structures and systems in general. He is also interested in new teaching paradigms for family history and genealogy research, was vice-president of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society for several years, and is a qualified business coach.