Connal Parr, Vice Chancellor's Research Fellow in the Humanities, Northumbria University

Connal Parr studied Modern History at the University of Oxford and obtained his PhD in Ulster Protestant politics and culture at Queen's University Belfast in 2013. He was Irish Government Senior Scholar for 2014-15 at Hertford College, Oxford, and went on to convene and teach a course on 20th Century Europe at Fordham University's London Centre from January to June 2016. In September 2016 he became Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellow in the Humanities at Northumbria University. A board member of Etcetera Theatre Company, he has published articles in Irish Studies Review, Irish Political Studies, and the Irish Review.

Shortlisted for the Ewart-Biggs Literary Prize

"No one who reads this book will disagree that Parr has uncovered an entirely admirable if no doubt subsidiary tradition of left-wing, cultured, ever-despairing, ever-hopeful Protestant culture caught between classness and déclassé, reactionary and progressive. This beleaguered community has found a truly ground-breaking and sympathetic interpreter." -- Marc Mulholland, Journal of Contemporary History

"Connal Parr's book examines the overlooked role of theatre in shaping the imagination of Northern Ireland's Protestants. It makes for lively reading, populated by colourful characters, such as the playwrights Gary Mitchell and Graham Reid, and drawn from rich archival sources. Parr also includes spirited interviews with many of his subjects, all combining to give a strong sense of the Northern Irish theatrical scene in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries." -- Times Literary Supplement

"This is not only an excellent book to read but it is also very readable, being both well-written and informative ... This is a book that deserves to be well read by anyone with an interest in Ireland, also by those with an interest in literature and its role in conveying a message to the outside world whilst also reflecting back to ordinary people the realities of their own space." --James Dingley, National Identities

"It is rooted in a wide range of primary sources, a large number of interviews and a grounding in scholarly literature on the modern social, cultural and political history of Northern Ireland. It is a courageous book in many ways ... Parr has made a major contribution to a historically and culturally sensitive understanding of that community and in particular of its combative and progressive dimensions." --Henry Patterson, History Ireland

"comprehensive and meticulously â researched ... raises many important questions. Parr deftly utilizes the texts of these authors' writing, exploring how their work fit within and critiqued the political contexts of their time. Inventing the Myth is a scholarly book. But Parr's writing style is clear enough to be appreciated by a popular audience." --Gladys Ganiel, Slugger O'Toole

"it's one of the most important books to have been written about unionist 'identity' in Northern Ireland." --Alex Kane, News Letter

"an impressive intervention in cultural history, highlighting dramatic writing from Sam Thompson to Gary Mitchell and beyond." --Roy Foster, 'The best books of 2017', The Irish Times

"[An] important and ground-breaking book...For those who genuinely seek a nuanced and detailed understanding of [the Protestant working-class in Northern Ireland,] its political and cultural dynamics over the course of the last century they could do no better than delve into this hugely rewarding book." -- Stephen Hopkins, Irish Political Studies

"In exploring the social and political contexts of northern Irish Protestantism, its inheritance of dissent (what Dawn Purvis, former leader of the Progressive Unionist Party refers to as "independent thought") and linking this history to the "literary imagination" and its "connection to the theatre", Parr has opened the door on the history of creative self- questioning and critical debate that is all so often passed by." --Gerald Dawe, The Irish Times