Born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland in 1936, Dennis Kennedy was educated at Wallace High School Lisburn, Queen"s University, Belfast, and Trinity College Dublin. He graduated in Modern History from Queen"s in 1958, and received a Doctor of Philosophy from Dublin University (Trinity College) in 1985.
His most recent publications include Square Peg. The Life and Times of a Northern Newspaperman South of the Border, Nonsuch, November 2009, and Climbing Slemish: An Ulster Memoir. He has worked as a journalist in Northern Ireland, the United States, Ethiopia and the Republic of Ireland, and subsequently as Head of the European Commission office in Belfast, and as lecturer in European Studies in Queen"s University Belfast.
His career in journalism began as a reporter with the Belfast Telegraph in 1959.
He has documented this year in the book Yankee Doodles which includes his account of being in the White House on the day of President John F Kennedy"s funeral. In 1968 he returned to Ireland, joining The Irish Times in Dublin as a reporter.
In 1985 he ended 17 years with The Irish Times and returned to Belfast to take up the post of Head of the European Commission Office in Northern Ireland. (1985–1991). In 1993 he joined the academic staff of Queen"s University, Belfast as a research fellow, and later lecturer, in European Studies.
He retired in 2001.
He was appointed Diplomatic Correspondent in 1969, European Editor in 1972, Assistant Editor in 1974 and Deputy Editor in 1982.
