Formerly a historical adviser to Northern Ireland’s Bloody Sunday Tribunals, Paul is a crossbench peer in the UK’s House of Lords and a member of the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly. In his time in parliament, Paul served on the London Local Authority Bill Select Committee in 2007 and acted as secretary to the All Party Group on Archives and History.

In 2011 he served on the select committee of both houses on the defamation bill which included key issues of academic freedom. Paul is a member of UK Constiitution Unit Council, is Chairman of the Anglo-Israel Association, an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College (Cambridge) and a Member of Royal Irish Academy (MRIA). He has authored many books and his latest, ‘Enigma: A new Life of Charles Stewart Parnell’ was named ‘Biography of the Year’ by The Sunday Times.