Muiris Bric was born in Cahirsiveen and is Emeritus Professor of History at University College Dublin. He has written extensively on the wider history of Ireland, most notably on relationships between Ireland and America and the international impact of Daniel O’Connell. One of his books on these relationships, The Re-Invention of America, won the Historical Research Prize. He is, or has been, a member of a number of national and international organisations which deal with higher education, most notably, the Higher Education Authority, European Science Foundation, the European University Institute, and the Royal Irish Academy, to which he was elected in 2001 and which he later served as Vice-President. He has also written a number of influential reports on higher education, including the seminal report on The Case for a Research Council which subsequently led to the establishment of the Irish Research Council which he also served in a number of capacities, including Chair of the Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

He is currently finishing a collection of essays on the international impact of Daniel O’Connell. Having published an edited collection on Kerry: History and Society earlier this year, he is also completing a history of his native town of Cahersiveen.