Conal Gillespie

Conal Gillespie was born in an Ulster Scots community in east Donegal a few weeks before the Rolling Stones first made the singles charts. Educated in Donegal, TCD and QUB and taught History in Londonderry in the 1980s and 1990s.

In 1995 he became what he used to describe as “the only Ulster Scots cultural professional in the known Universe” when he became Development Officer for the Ulster Scots Heritage Council and Cultural Traditions Fellow at QUB’s Institute of Irish Studies.

Writer of many articles and stories in Ulster Scots he was the first presenter of BBC Radio Ulster’s A Kist o’ Wurds.

When not working as a translator of official documents into Ulster Scots and as Ulster Scots translator at the Northern Ireland Assembly he grows shellfish and generally footers aboot on his native heath on the shores of Lough Foyle.

His extra curricular interests include sailing, gardening,, country sports and Rock n’ Roll.