Robert A. Bell is a genealogist on Irish Scots surnames and the author of The Book of Ulster Surnames. His short stories have been published in the Belfast Telegraph, Passage 1 (1987) and The Blackstaff Book of Short Stories (1988), and he has also contributed articles to the Belfast Review. He formally worked in the Linen Hall Library

Linen Hall Library

The Linen Hall Library is located at 17 Donegall Square North, Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the oldest library in Belfast and the last subscribing library in Northern Ireland. The Library is physically in the centre of Belfast, and more generally at the centre of the cultural and creative life...

, in Belfast, where he was supervisor of the Northern Ireland Political Collection. In 1979, he returned from Oldham to Belfast to read Modern History at Queen’s University.