I completed BA and MA degrees in history at Queen’s University Belfast. I then studied for a Graduate Diploma in Theology at Union Theological College before returning to Queen’s, where I earned a PhD in history in 2019. My dissertation, supervised by Prof. Andrew Holmes, examined how Christian denominations in Northern Ireland responded to challenges stemming from the Second World War. I returned to Union in 2020 to take an MDiv degree in preparation for ministry within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. I served as Assistant Minister in Ballyclare Presbyterian Church from 2023 until my appointment to the Union Theological College faculty in the autumn of 2025.
My research to date revolves around the historical role of Christianity, its institutions, and their leaders in domestic and international society in mid-twentieth century Northern Ireland. I am particularly interested in how those institutions and their leadership responded to, interpreted, and were shaped by events and ideas, including international conflicts, their underlying socio-political ideologies, and changes in intellectual and societal thought. My work adopts comparative approaches, contextualising Northern Ireland with Great Britain and Ireland.
My current projects include a monograph based on my PhD thesis and a study of how the Presbyterian Church in Ireland engaged with international politics, scientific progress, moral reform, and ecumenism in the 1950s.