Donald MacRaild, a historian of Irish immigration and labour history, has died suddenly aged 60 after a short illness. Over a three-decade career, he held academic posts at the universities of Sunderland, Northumbria, Ulster, Roehampton, the Victoria University of Wellington, and London Metropolitan University, where he served as pro-vice-chancellor for research and innovation before retiring in 2025. He also held honorary fellowships at Edinburgh and Ulster.
Career and Research
MacRaild produced groundbreaking research on Irish Catholic and Protestant immigration, resulting in books on the Irish in Britain, the Orange Order in Victorian and Edwardian England, and the English diaspora in North America. His other passion was labour history, influenced by historian E P Thompson. With David Martin he wrote Labour in British Society, 1830–1914 (2000), and with Kyle Hughes a study of secret agrarian Ribbon societies in 19th-century Ireland, which he considered his finest work. His last two books, on the Great Irish Famine and Irish pauperism in 19th-century Britain, appeared in 2023 and 2024.
Early Life and Education
Born in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, to Wendy and Neil MacRaild, a pharmaceutical worker, he attended Barrow grammar and Parkview schools before earning a history degree from Liverpool Polytechnic (now Liverpool John Moores) in 1989. He completed a PhD at Sheffield University in 1993, with a thesis on Irish migrants in North Lancashire and Cumberland, becoming part of the 'Sheffield school' of immigration and ethnic history.
Books and Legacy
His most widely read work, Studying History (2000), co-written with Jeremy Black, has run to numerous editions and become a staple for undergraduate skills courses. In total, he authored, co-authored, or edited 18 books and nearly 50 articles and chapters. At Sunderland and Northumbria, he also worked as a part-time tutor at the Open University. He was noted as an exceptional PhD supervisor and mentor, celebrated for his kindness, candour, and conviviality.
Personal Life
On retirement, he returned to his native Cumbria with his second wife, Connie Haag, a journalist, whom he married in 2020. He is survived by Connie, his children Michael, Katie, and Andrew from his first marriage to Lisa Bowler, which ended in divorce, his sister Margaret, and his mother Wendy.
