 Founded and edited by Donnchadh Ó Corráin of University College Cork since the early 1980s until 2016, Ó Corráin passed on this role to fellow Professor of History Dáibhí Ó Cróinín of NUI Galway and Elva Johnston of University College Dublin.Ó Cróinín's work had featured in the first edition.Patrick Wormald also noted two "firsts" in English language scholarship in his review of that edition