Paul Bew
Paul Anthony Elliott Bew, Baron Bew (born 22 January 1950,in Belfast) is a Northern Irish historian. He has worked at Queen's University Belfast since 1979, and is currently Professor of Irish Politics, a position he has held since 1991.
Poltical Career
Bew's political stance has changed somewhat over the years. In a 2004 interview for The Guardian, he stated that "While my language was more obviously leftwing in the 1970s than today, that sympathy has always been there". As a young man, Bew participated in the People's Democracy marches. Bew was briefly a member of a group called the Workers' Association, which advocated the Two Nations Theory of Northern Ireland . Bew was also a member of the Workers' Party of Ireland. Later, Bew served as an adviser to David Trimble. Trimble and Bew are both signatories to the statement of principles of the Henry Jackson Society, which has been characterised as a neoconservative organisation.
Bew's contributions to the Good Friday Agreement process were acknowledged with an appointment to the House of Lords as a life peer in February 2007. He was gazetted as Baron Bew, of Donegore in the County of Antrim on 26 March 2007, and sits as a crossbencher.
Education
Bew attended Campbell College, Belfast as a youth, before studying for his BA and PhD at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
