Leading historians pay tribute to their fellow scholar Jonathan Bardon

Dr Bardon, whose seminal work was A History of Ulster in 1992, lost his battle with illness early on Tuesday.

He had appeared to have defeated infection with Covid-19, before his condition suddenly worsened. He had been treated for lung cancer.

Scholars yesterday were remembering Dr Bardon.

Henry Patterson, emeritus professor of Irish politics at Ulster University, said: “With so much of the economic, social and political history of Northern Ireland still to be written his History of Ulster remains an essential point of departure.”

Lord Bew, emeritus professor of Irish politics at Queen’s University, said: “It is a tragic loss a — he was a formidable scholar and a fine gentleman.”

Eamon Phoenix, head of Lifelong Learning at Stranmillis University College, said Dr Bardon’s “monumental A History of Ulster stands out for its erudition, accessibility and balance”.

Writing in the Irish News, he said: “He once told me that it began as a potted series of articles on such key events as the Ulster Plantation, the 1798 Rebellion and the Civil Rights movement, penned in odd moments between taxi-ing his daughter to visit her friends on winter nights at the height of the Troubles in the 1970s and early 80s.”

Dr Phoenix added: “He had a sparkling wit and was a great story-teller, often recalling how his great uncle, George Bardon, a Great War veteran who survived the horrors of the Western Front, returned to Ireland in 1918 only to perish in the Great Flu’ pandemic of that time.”

Brian M. Walker, emeritus professor of Irish History, at QUB said Dr Bardon will be “greatly missed”.

He added: “He was a great historian who could make his history very accessible. His main work was his A History of Ulster, published first in 1992. This book is a remarkable account of the contested history of Ulster from early times to the present which manages to be authoritative, fair and compelling reading.

“Besides his published work he made a very important contribution to public and cultural life in Northern Ireland, as in his recent role as President of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society. He was also a very friendly and enthusiastic individual. He will be greatly missed.”

The Ulster-Scots historian and News Letter contributor Gordon Lucy said: “Both as an author and a broadcaster, Jonathan Bardon made history accessible to a wider audience, the greatest compliment surely which can be paid to any historian.

“He will be remembered by many as an absolute gentleman who made a series of very distinguished contributions to Ulster history. His histories of Ulster and of Belfast will be the starting point for students of local history for a great many years to come.”

Mr Lucy added: “The Narrow Sea: the Irish-Scottish Connection and The Plantation of Ulster, two of his most recent publications, were both highly regarded and deservedly so in Ulster-Scots circles.

“As a community, we ought to be extremely grateful to this Dubliner who made his home among us approximately 60 years ago and who devoted so much of his time and energy in explaining with great objectivity and sensitivity our fascinating but highly contested past to us.”