R.B. (Robert Brendan) McDowell (born 1913) is an Irish historian. He is Fellow Emeritus and former Professor of History at Trinity College, Dublin. He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, where he discovered his love of History, here he met T. W. Moody, later an esteemed colleague in the History department at Trinity. He was first appointed a lecturer in Trinity in 1945, and for 13 years (1956–1969) was the Junior Dean of Students. At the age of 93, he still resides on the campus of the college in the oldest residential building on the campus, and in Dublin, the Rubrics. In 2007, The College Historical Society of which McDowell is a vice-president unveiled a portrait of McDowell, which can be seen in the Graduates' Memorial Building, alongside Douglas Hyde & Theobald Wolfe Tone, amongst others.
