John Ranelagh

John O’Beirne Ranelagh is a member of the Wicklow Byrnes family and read Modern History at Christ Church, Oxford. His father was in the IRB and IRA. John has interviewed 105 participants of the 1914–24 period, including the sole survivor of the 1916 IRB Supreme Council. He is the author of A Short History of Ireland; Ireland: An Illustrated History; Thatcher’s People (a Financial Times Book of the Year); Den Anden Kanal; Human Rights and Foreign Policy (with Richard Luce); Science and Education; and The Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CIA (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and winner of the National Intelligence Book Prize). He was associate producer of Robert Kee’s prize-winning BBC/RTÉ series Ireland: A Television History, established a regular weekly programme, Irish Angle, on Channel 4, and brought The Gay Byrne Show to British television.