Robert Fitzroy Foster (born 16 January 1949), publishing as R. F. Foster, is an Irish historian and academic. He was the Carroll Professor of Irish History from 1991 until 2016 at

Hertford College, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main ga ...

Early life

Foster was born on 16 January 1949 in

Waterford Waterford ( ) is a City status in Ireland, city in County Waterford in the South-East Region, Ireland, south-east of Ireland. It is located within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster. The city is situated at the head of Waterford H ...

, to two teachers: Betty Foster (née Fitzroy), a primary teacher, and 'Fef' (Frederick) Ernest Foster, a teacher of Irish. His father, Fef, was a native of Drung, a tiny hamlet and parish located between Cavan Town and Cootehill in

County Cavan County Cavan ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is based on the hi ...

where Roy's grandfather Frederick Foster signed the Ulster Covenant in 1912. Roy attended Newtown School in Waterford, a multi-denominational school that was founded as a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

school in 1798. He won a scholarship to attend St. Andrew's School in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

for a year before reading history at

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

. He was awarded an M.A. and PhD by Trinity College, where he was taught by T. W. Moody and F. S. L. Lyons, and was elected a scholar in History and Political Science in 1969.

Academic career

Prior to his appointment to the Carroll professorship, he was Professor of Modern British History at

Birkbeck College, University of London Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a public research university located in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. Established in 1823 as the London Mechanics' ...

, and held visiting fellowships at

St Antony's College, Oxford St Antony's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, economics, politic ...

, the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

, Princeton, and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. Based in London as well as at Hertford College in Oxford, Foster visits Ireland frequently. His work is generally published under the name R. F. Foster. He has written early biographies of

Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell (27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom from 1875 to 1891, Leader of the Home Rule Leag ...

and

Lord Randolph Churchill Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill (13 February 1849 – 24 January 1895) was a British aristocrat and politician. Churchill was a Tory radical who coined the term "One-nation conservatism, Tory democracy". He participated in the creation ...

, edited ''The Oxford History of Ireland'' (1989), and written ''Modern Ireland: 1600–1972'' (1988) and several books of essays. He collaborated with Fintan Cullen on a National Portrait Gallery exhibition, ''Conquering England: the Irish in Victorian London''. Foster produced a much-acclaimed two-part biography of

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

, which was awarded the

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Un ...

. Seamus Deane wrote a review of the biography in which he quoted the last line of Yeats' poem ''The Municipal Gallery Revisited'': "My glory was that I had such friends", and stated that Yeats was also lucky to have Foster as his biographer. In 2000, Foster was a

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

judge.

Personal life

He has been married to the novelist and critic Aisling Foster (née O'Conor Donelan) since 1972; the couple have two children."Interpreter of myths"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 12 September 2003.

Honours

In 1989, he was elected

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

(FBA) , and in 2010 he was elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy (Hon. MRIA). He is also an elected

Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...

(FRSL), and a

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned or professional societies, the term refers ...

(FRHistS). He gave the 2006 Warton Lecture on English Poetry. In 2015, he was awarded the British Academy Medal for his book ''Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland 1890–1923''. In 2017, he was made an honorary fellow of

. In 2021 Foster was awarded an Irish Presidential Distinguished Service Award in Arts, Culture & Sport. Foster received the ''Lifetime Achievement Award'' as one of the

Irish Book Awards The Irish Book Awards are Irish literary awards given annually to books and authors in various categories. It is the only literary award supported by all-Irish bookstores. The primary sponsor is An Post, the state owned postal service in Ireland ...

in November 2023.

Works

* ''Charles Stewart Parnell: The Man and His Family'' (Sussex: Harvester Wheatsheaf 1976; NJ: Humanities Press 1979) * ‘To The Northern Counties Station: Lord Randolph Churchill and the Prelude to the Orange Card’, in F. S. L. Lyons & R. A. J. Hawkins, ed., ''Ireland Under the Union: Varieties of Tension: Essays in Honour of T. W. Moody'' (Oxford Clarendon Press 1980) * ''Lord Randolph Churchill: A Political Life'' (Oxford: OUP 1981) * ''Modern Ireland 1600–1972'' (London: Allen Lane; NY Viking/Penguin 1988) ith introductory essay on 'Varieties of Irishness'* ed., ''The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Ireland'' (OUP 1989; ev. edn. as''The Oxford History of Ireland'', OUP 1992) * ''W. B. Yeats, A Life, Vol. I: The Apprentice Mage, 1865–1914'' (OUP March 1997) * ''The Irish Story: Telling Tales and Making It Up in Ireland'' (London: Allen Lane/Penguin Press 2001) * ''W. B. Yeats – A Life, II: The Arch-Poet 1915–1939'' (Oxford: OUP 2003) * ''Luck and the Irish: A Brief History of Change from 1970'' (Oxford: OUP 2008) * ''Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland, 1890–1923'' (NY: W. W. Norton & Company; 2015) * ''On Seamus Heaney'' (Princeton University Press 2020) Essay collections * ''Paddy and Mr Punch: Connections in Irish History and English History'' (London: Allen Lane/Penguin 1993; rep. 1995) * ''The Irish Story: Telling Tales and Making It Up in Ireland'' (London: Allen Lane/Penguin Press 2001) Miscellaneous * ''Political Novels and Nineteenth-Century History'' (Winchester: King Alfred's College 1982) * ed., Hubert Butler, ''The Sub-Prefect Should Have Held His Tongue'' (Dublin: Lilliput Press 1990; rep. London: Penguin 1992), and Do., in French trans. as ''L’Envahisseur est venu en pantoufles'' (1995) * ''The Story of Ireland: an Inaugural Lecture delivered before the University of Oxford on 1 December 1994'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1995)

Notes and references

External links

Foster contributions and archive
at ''

The London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Boo ...

''

at '' Conversations with Tyler'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, R. F. 1949 births Living people Academics of Birkbeck, University of London Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of Hertford College, Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Fellows of the Royal Historical Society 20th-century Irish historians 21st-century Irish historians Honorary Fellows of Trinity College Dublin James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients Members of the Royal Irish Academy People educated at Newtown School, Waterford Writers from Waterford (city) Recipients of the British Academy Medal Revisionism (Ireland) Scholars of Trinity College Dublin W. B. Yeats scholars St. Andrew's School (Delaware) alumni Historians of the University of Oxford