Raymond Gillespie is an editorial board member of the Irish Historic Towns Atlas, a research project of the Royal Irish Academy. He is a Professor of History at Maynooth University. His main research interest is social change in early modern Ireland. He is joint author with Stephen A. Royle of Irish Historic Towns Atlas, no. 12, Belfast part I, to 1840 (2003) and Belfast c. 1600 to c. 1900, the making of the modern city (2006), as well as Irish Historic Towns Atlas, no. 23, Carlingford (2011) with Harold O'Sullivan.