Rory Sweetman is a professional New Zealand historian. He teaches at the University of Otago in modern Irish history and has published widely on New Zealand’s ethnic and religious past.^[1]

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, New Zealand. He has history degrees from the Universities of Dublin (BA (Hons) 1981) and Cambridge (Peterhouse) (Ph.D, 1991).^[2] Sweetman's doctorate from Cambridge University was on the subject New Zealand Catholicism, War, Politics and the Irish Issue 1912-22.^[3]

Academic career

Sweetman has lived in Dunedin since 1997, the last six of which have been spent teaching Irish history at the University of Otago.^[3]

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.

• Bishop in the dock : the sedition trial of James Liston, Auckland University Press, 1997.