Ronan Coghlan

Who is Ronan Coghlan?

Ronan Coghlan is an Irish writer living in Bangor, County Down in Northern Ireland.

Coghlan was born Dublin in 1948. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin.

Coghlan has worked as a schoolmaster in a large number of schools and is married with three children. He is a regular lecturer at The Weird Weekend, an event under the aegis of the Centre for Fortean Zoology. He is known for his unorthodox views on education and his generally eccentric personality. His wide variety of interests include the paranormal, theology, biblical studies, onomastics, mythology, folklore, medieval legend and etymology. His best selling book has been "Encyclopaedia of Arthurian Legends" which sold 120,000 copies worldwide and has been translated into Japanese and Hungarian.

For a time he was the proprietor of Excalibur Books, a mail-order business.

In 2005 Coghlan founded a private publishing house under the name of Xiphos Books. The titles issued under this imprint are those which would probably not be commercially viable if issued by a mainstream publisher. They include a new edition of Jonathan Downes' book on UFOs, The Rising of the Moon.