Bernard O'Hara (born c. 1945) is an Irish historian.
O'Hara, a native of County Mayo, Ireland, is a historian and a former registrar of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT). One of the original members of staff when the GMIT opened in September 1972, O'Hara started his academic career as a lecturer in business studies, later serving for 19 years as the Head of the School of Business and Humanities. He was then promoted to Registrar of the college, where he served for 11 years until September 2010.[1]
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,"[2] O'Hara wrote a concise biography of Michael Davitt, first published in 2006 by Mayo County in association with the Michael Davitt Memorial Association.[3] O'Hara has published a dozen books and numerous articles on Irish history. In the 2012 publication Killasser: Heritage of a Mayo Parish, he provided an overview of Irish history with a focus on the ordinary lives of those living in the rural parish. In 2017, O'Hara published Exploring Mayo, an illustrated book about the landscape, baronies, parishes, leisure and cultural attractions as well as the archaeological and historical heritage of County Mayo.
O'Hara's specialist subjects include archeology, Irish place-names, education, County Mayo, farming, Irish emigration, the Catholic Church, rural history, Irish mythology, sport and Irish genealogy as well as the growth of modern Ireland.