Career
O'Hara, a native of County Mayo, Ireland, is a historian and a former registrar of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT). He was then promoted to Registrar of the college, where he served for 11 years until September 2010. O'Hara is a former president of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society and was a director of the Galway Chamber of Commerce and Industry for over a decade.
Known as "one of Ireland's foremost scholars on Davitt," O'Hara wrote a concise biography of Michael Davitt, first published in 2006 by Mayo County in association with the Michael Davitt Memorial Association. O'Hara has published a dozen books and numerous articles on Irish history. In his latest publication, Killasser: Heritage of a Mayo Parish, he provides an overview of Irish history with a focus on the ordinary lives of those living in the rural parish.
