A graduate of the Ulster University, Paul Robinson spent most of his working life in a variety of project management roles in different Northern Ireland Civil Service departments. He retired nearly three years ago. Originally from Dunmurry, he lives in east Belfast with his wife Jacqui and a cat called Boots. They have two grown up children who live in England.
His interests include classic cars, reading (fact and fiction), Northern Ireland motorsport history (up to the 1950s) and going to the cinema. He has competed in motor hill climbs all over the UK in classic Triumph sports cars he restored himself and several times at the Hill Climb held in the grounds of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum Cultra.
He is editor of the Ulster Automobile Club magazine Wheelspin and a member of the Society of Automotive Historians in Britain. Cultra - Motoring with panache , is his first published book and has received financial support from the Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust. The M.S.M.T. was founded in memory of the motoring historian and author Michael C. Sedgwick (1926-1983) to encourage the publication of new motoring research and the recording of Road Transport History .
Paul is currently working on several more books covering aspects of motoring history in Northern Ireland between 1913 and 1933.
My books are about motor sport in Northern Ireland in the first half of the 20th century.
It was a time of enormous wealth , especially around Belfast, and the emergence of the motor car as both a means of transport and for use in competition, for example reliability trials, hill climbs and road races.
In 1922 Northern Ireland became the only part of the United Kingdom where roads could be closed for motorsport. In 1925 the Ulster Automobile Club was formed to promote motorsport.
My books focus on events not previously published and include the Edwardian Cultra Hill Climbs, sand racing at Magilligan Strand and the road races at Donaghadee and Bangor.
The second edition of the Ulster TT badges will be available in May 2025 and I am currently working on a new book on Craigantlet Hill climb 1925 to 1947.