He was educated at Lurgan College in Armagh and at Queen's University Belfast.
He worked in the Department of Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library in Oxford until 1971.
[2] From 1971 until 2004 he was a lecturer in the Department of Politics and International relations at Swansea University.
[1] He contributed 15 articles to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
His funeral service was held in Swansea, but his ashes were interred in County Down in 2021.