Chris Lawlor

Chris Lawlor
Born	Christopher Lawlor
Occupation(s)	schoolteacher and historian
Spouse	Margaret Mooney ​ (m. 1985)​
Children	3

Christopher Lawlor (born 1960) is an Irish historian and writer, known for his work on the history of West Wicklow.

Early life and education

Born in London in 1960, Lawlor moved to his father's home village of Dunlavin, County Wicklow before his first birthday. His interest in history was sparked during his early education at Dunlavin National School, particularly under the encouragement of schoolteacher Tom O'Neill, who incorporated local history into the parish’s primary-school curriculum.

Lawlor received his secondary education at Naas C.B.S. before going on to study at Maynooth College, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1981. He later earned a master's degree in local history at Maynooth in 1999, his thesis focusing on Canon Frederick Donovan, a 19th-century parish priest in Dunlavin. He completed his PhD at St Patrick's College, DCU in 2010, examining the history of Dunlavin from 1600 to shortly before World War I.

Career

Lawlor began teaching history at Méanscoil Iognáid Rís (Naas C.B.S.) in 1983, and he spent most of his professional career there, eventually becoming head of the History Department. He retired from teaching in 2017 but remains active in historical research and writing.

Lawlor serves as treasurer of the West Wicklow Historical Society and co-editor of its biennial journal, and has previously served as its vice-chariman. He has also been involved with the Dunlavin Writers’ Group and has written fiction alongside his many historical works.

Lawlor has won multiple awards for both short story writing and for historical research, including the Dunlavin Festival of Arts Short Story Award in 2001, the Lord Walter Fitzgerald Prize for Original Historical Research in 2003, the Irish Chiefs’ Prize for History in 2013 and Ireland’s Own Short Story Competition in 2018.

Personal life

Lawlor married to Margaret Mooney from Eadestown in 1985. The couple has three sons: Declan (Dunlavin), Jason (Ballinakill), and Noel (Portlaoise).

Bibliography

• The massacre on Dunlavin green: a story of the 1798 rebellion (Naas, 1998); ISBN 978-0953294701.
• Canon Frederick Donovan's Dunlavin 1884-1896: A West Wicklow village in the late nineteenth century (Dublin, 2000); ISBN 978-0716527244.
• From the Norman moat to the Spanish field: a history of Naas Christian Brothers' School (Naas, 2002); ISBN 978-0953294718.
• In search of Michael Dwyer (Naas, 2003); ISBN 978-0953294725.
• [Co-edited] General O'Brien: West Wicklow to South America (Naas, 2006).
• The longest rebellion (Dublin, 2007); ISBN 978-0955463426.
• An Irish village: Dunlavin, County Wicklow (Naas, 2011); ISBN 978-0953294732.
• The little book of Wicklow (Dublin, 2014); ISBN 978-0750998840.
• The little book of Kildare (Dublin, 2015); ISBN 978-1803997032.
• With much quiet fervour: a brief history of Dunlavin Roman Catholic parish and St Nicholas of Myra church (Naas, 2018); ISBN 978-0953294756.
• Dunlavin Diversions (Naas, 2020); ISBN 978-0953294763.
• A revolutionary village: Dunlavin, Co. Wicklow c.1900-1925 (Naas, 2021).
• Robert Barton: a remarkable revolutionary (Cheltenham, 2024); ISBN 978-1803998169.