Dr Paul Geraghty was born of Irish immigrant parents and raised in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Educated at Lawrence Sheriff Grammar School and Rugby School, he was awarded a travel scholarship and spent a year teaching in Fiji, when he began his research into the dialects of Fiji. 

After graduating from Cambridge with an MA in Modern Languages (French and German), he earned his PhD from the University of Hawaii with a dissertation on the history of the Fijian languages. He was recruited as researcher by the Fijian Monolingual Dictionary Project in Suva, which had been recently founded by the American/Canadian actor and philanthropist Raymond Burr. 

This project developed into the Institute of Fijian Language and Culture, of which he was Director from 1986 to 2001, being recognized for his service in researching and revitalising Fiji’s linguistic and cultural heritage with the award of Officer of the Order of Fiji by the then President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara in 1999. 

In 2001 he accepted a position at the University of the South Pacific, having previously written and taught there the first university course in a Pacific language. He is currently Adjunct Associate Professor in Linguistics and working on postgraduate courses in Fijian in addition to conducting wide-ranging research. 

He is author and editor of several books, including The History of the Fijian Languages (University of Hawai’i Press), the Lonely Planet Fijian Phrasebook, Borrowing: a Pacific Perspective (Australian National University Press), and The Macquarie Dictionary of English for the Fiji Islands, and numerous articles in professional journals and newspapers on Fijian and Pacific languages, culture, and history. He is also well known in Fiji as a newspaper columnist and radio and TV presenter, currently co-hosting the eighth season of the weekly programme Vueta na Vosa on Fiji TV.