Kenneth Nicholls (1934-2025) was Statutory Lecturer in the Department (now School) of History at University College Cork from his appointment in 1974 until his retirement in 2005. Widely regarded as one of the greatest scholars of his generation, as a teacher he ranged broadly through time and space, offering undergraduates a magical carpet-ride of Irish, British, European and even Asian History from the Middle Ages to the Demographic Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Though some students could find the journey challenging, tugging away at old orthodoxies, many found it inspiring and revelatory. No other lecturer demonstrated such a range or depth of knowledge. On his best days his classes could be spellbinding. They were never dull.