John Joseph Lee is an Irish historian and former senator. He is currently Professor of History and Glucksman Professor for Irish Studies and Director of Glucksman Ireland House, at New York University. Born in Tralee, Co Kerry, he spent his early years in Castlegregory in the same county. He graduated in 1962 from University College Dublin with first-class honours in History and Economics. He completed his MA some years later on the history of the railways in nineteenth-century Ireland. He was also a graduate student of Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1973, he published The Modernisation of Irish Society, 1848-1918. The following year he moved back to Ireland to become Professor of Modern History at University College Cork, succeeding Oliver McDonagh. He held the chair until 2002. His 1989 Ireland 1912-1985 - Politics and Society won the Irish Independent/Irish Life Prize for History in 1991; and both the Aer Lingus/Irish Times Prize for Literature and the J.S. Donnelly, Snr. Prize for History and Social Sciences in 1992. He has been a member of the Royal Irish Academy since 1985. 

July 9th, 1942 in Republic of Ireland (Age 81)