Richard Butler is a historian of modern Ireland and Director of Research at Mary Immaculate College (MIC) in Limerick. He grew up in Bantry in west Cork and holds a PhD in Architectural History from the University of Cambridge. A keen hiker, cyclist and sailor, Richard has extensive first-hand knowledge of the entire Wild Atlantic Way from land and sea, and combines this with academic expertise in Ireland’s history and culture. His publications include Building the Irish Courthouse and Prison: A Political History, 1750–1850 (Cork University Press, 2020) and the edited collection Dreams of the Future in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (Liverpool University Press, 2021).