The Gown
student newspaper at Queen's University
The Gown is the student newspaper at Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was formed by Richard Herman, a medical student, in April 1955. In 2005 Dr. Herman attended the paper's 50th Anniversary.
The paper is run voluntarily by students, and is funded by advertising without University or Students' Union assistance, although it is located in the Union building.
History
During the Troubles, the 30 years of political violence in Northern Ireland, the newspaper covered the deaths of local MP Robert Bradford and the murder of Queen's university lecturer and Assembly member Edgar Graham in 1983. The paper also interviewed Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Féin during the height of the Provisional Irish Republican Army's campaign. The Gown also interviewed the then little-known band U2.
Past contributors include Mark Carruthers and Maggie Taggart of BBC Northern Ireland, Henry McDonald of The Observer, radio and television presenter Nick Ross, journalist Eamonn McCann, Irish Times foreign correspondent Conor O'Clery and that paper's political cartoonist Martyn Turner.
In February 2010, standing news editor Lorcan Mullen published in The Guardian an article concerning a leaked NI government report regarding university fees.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Gown” as student newspaper at Queen's University. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as student newspaper at Queen's University. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7737416. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1955, 2005, 1983 and 2010.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Gown”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Gown primary sources, The Gown archive and Gown research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Gown”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Gown” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.