founded the Irish Historical Society. A man with an intense work ethic and much energy, Moody wanted to bring up the standard of history in Ireland, which he felt needed improvements. Moody was sympathetic towards Irish nationalism, but he detested violence. In his obituary, Father F.X Martin noted that Moody was raised in the Plymouth Brethren, but he found his true faith as an adult when he became a Quaker. Moody felt Ireland was in need of major social reforms, hence his personal heroes were James Connolly, James Larkin, and above all Michael Davitt, who preached a mixture of Irish nationalism, social reformism and non-violence. Despite the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, Edwards and Moody worked together and in 1938 founded the Irish Committee of Historical Studies to ensure that Ireland was a member of the Comité International des Sciences Historiques. Later in 1938, Moody and Edwards founded the journal Irish Historical Studies, to promote the study of Irish history in a properly peer-reviewed journal. In June 1939, Moody accepted an offer to teach at Trinity College, the most prestigious university in Ireland. He held the position of Erasmus Smith's Professor of Modern History at Trinity College Dublin from 1940 to 1977, when he became professor emeritus. In 1940, Moody defined his goals to: “teach history in various fields, including the history of Ireland to undergraduates; to encourage and direct research on Irish history, especially by young history graduates; to set new standards of objectivity and technical excellence in the conduct of the research and in the presentation of its results; to promote and assist the publication of articles and books based on such work, and thus to bring a new historiography to bear on the teaching of Irish history; to encourage co-operation among historians and communications between the historians and the concerned public; and to contribute directly to the new historiography”. In 1943, Moody was promoted to the head of the history department. Moody was a popular teacher with enrolments in the history department rising steadily and Trinity acquiring a worldwide reputation as a centre of research on medieval and modern Irish history. Together with Edwards who now at University College in Dublin and David Quinn at Liverpool University, Moody persuaded the publisher Faber and Faber to launch a series called “Studies in Irish History” to allow his graduate students a chance to be published.