Mark O'Brien is a Ph.D. graduate of the National University of Ireland. He is the author of De Valera, Fianna Fail and the Irish Press: The Truth in the News? (2001) and co-editor of Political Censorship and the Democratic State: The Irish Broadcasting Ban (2005). He was historical advisor to the RTE Hidden History documentary Family Fortune: De Valera’s Irish Press (2004). Teaching and research interests include modern Irish history and politics, the sociology of crime and conflict and media history. He is currently writing a history of the Irish Times.