PROFESSOR J.C. Beckett, who has died in Belfast aged 84, was a former Professor of Irish History at Queen's University and one of the most prominent Irish historians of the past 50 years.
A prolific author with an international reputation, he was influential in freeing Irish historical studies from the shackles of political controversy and enhancing the academic status of the subject.
In one of his best known books, The Making of Modern Ireland 1603-1923, he wrote "The idea of an `Irish nation', indifferent to religious rivalries, rooted in history, but enlightened by the Revolution, takes its rise in the Belfast of the late eighteenth century."
James Camlin Beckett was born in 1912 and educated at Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Queen's University. He taught for some years at Belfast Royal Academy before joining the university's lecturing staff in 1945.
He remained at Queen's until his retirement in 1975, after which he lectured abroad, notably at McGill University, Montreal, and Tulane University, New Orleans.
His many publications included Protestant Dissent in Ireland 1687-1780 The Anglo Irish Tradition and Belfast and Short History of Ireland. He also co edited several surveys under the general title Ulster since 1800.
He was a member of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts from 1960- 1986 and was a former vice president of Belfast's Linen hall Library. He received honorary degrees from the University of Ulster and from Queen's.
Professor Beckett, who was unmarried, will be interred today at Ballinderry parish churchyard after a funeral service in St Thomas's Parish Church, Eglantine Avenue, Belfast.