History Ireland—Ireland's History Magazine

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Platform:The elephant and partition: Ireland and India Platform:The elephant and partition: Ireland and India Introducing this special issue, Kate O’Malley looks at the myriad of connections between the two countries over the past two centuries. Read More >>

Featured Articles

Integration: ‘Seeing a vision in a pool of ink’: ‘The Mir’ of India in Ireland Integration: ‘Seeing a vision in a pool of ink’: ‘The Mir’ of India in Ireland Vivian Ibrahim outlines the career of Mir Aulad Ali (1832–98), appointed Trinity College’s first Professor of Arabic and Hindustani in 1861, a colourful character who became a well-established figure in Dublin, showing how an early migrant from Northern India was accepted and indeed welcomed into social and political life in Ireland. Read More >>

Zoology:Trevelyan’s rhinoceros and other gifts from India to Dublin Zoo Zoology:Trevelyan’s rhinoceros and other gifts from India to Dublin Zoo In the nineteenth century, Dublin Zoo struggled to acquire elephants, tigers, rhinoceros, bears and other popular animals from India. Although they were available from dealers, the zoo seldom generated enough income to purchase them and had to rely instead on the benevolence of well-placed friends and supporters in India. Catherine de Courcy explains how one of them, Sir Charles Trevelyan, donated a young rhinoceros. Read More >>

Literature: Mythologising a ‘mystic’:W.B. Yeats on the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore Literature: Mythologising a ‘mystic’:W.B. Yeats on the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore If Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize last year on the grounds of anticipated performance, Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 on the basis, more or less, of a single collection of poems—Gitanjali: Song Offerings. But, asks Malcolm Sen, was it awarded for the right reason? Read More >>

Repression: The Amritsar massacre, 1919: the Irish connection Repression: The Amritsar massacre, 1919: the Irish connection Pierce A. Grace gives an account of one of the most shocking and cold-blooded massacres in history and of the Irish connections of those responsible. Read More >>

Commemoration:Nationalism, empire and memory: the Connaught Rangers mutiny, June 1920 Commemoration:Nationalism, empire and memory: the Connaught Rangers mutiny, June 1920 The Connaught Rangers enjoyed a distinguished history as a British Army regiment from their formation in 1793 until their disbandment in 1922. The Connaughts served the British Empire in places ranging from the Caribbean to Africa to India. Yet, as Michael Silvestri relates, for many Irish people, the Connaught Rangers’ greatest feat was not the battle honours they won for queen and empire but a protest they staged in India in the summer of 1920. Read More >>

Sport: Ranji—the cricketing maharajah of Connemara Sport: Ranji—the cricketing maharajah of Connemara Anne Chambers tells the story of the Jam Saheb of Nawanager, who made Ballinahinch Castle, near Clifton, his second home between 1924 and 1932. Read More >>

Politics: Learning the tricks of the imperial secession trade: Irish and Indian nationalism in the ’30s and ’40s Politics: Learning the tricks of the imperial secession trade: Irish and Indian nationalism in the ’30s and ’40s Kate O’Malley explains how the coming to power of de Valera in 1932 heightened Indian interest in Irish politics and made Ireland a regular destination for Indian political activists. Read More >>

Demographic crisis: Revisiting the Bengal famine of 1943–4 Demographic crisis: Revisiting the Bengal famine of 1943–4 Cormac Ó Gráda, one of Ireland’s foremost theorists on famine, examines India’s last major food-related demographic crisis and how it influenced our understanding of what causes famines more generally. Read More >>

Partition: The 1947 partition of India: Irish parallels Partition: The 1947 partition of India: Irish parallels In March 1942 the South African prime minister, J.C. Smuts, warned Churchill against using ‘Irish tactics of partition’ in India; Churchill himself referred to Pakistan as ‘a sort of Ulster in the North [of India]’. His secretary of state, L.S. Amery, referred to the breakup of India ‘on Ulster and Éire lines’. Deirdre McMahon explores the parallels in the partition experience of two former British colonies. Read More >>

Education: Muslim students in 1950s Dublin Education: Muslim students in 1950s Dublin Adil Hussain Khan traces the genesis of Ireland’s Muslim community. Read More >>

Artefacts: Irish VCs and the Indian Mutiny Artefacts: Irish VCs and the Indian Mutiny Lar Joye cites some of the many Irishmen awarded the Victoria Cross, including Sergeant Patrick Mahoney, who won it during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Read More >>

Development: ‘Across the gaping earth blasted by hatred’: Concern in Bangladesh Development: ‘Across the gaping earth blasted by hatred’: Concern in Bangladesh Kevin O’Sullivan outlines how Africa Concern, expelled from Nigeria in January 1970 following the end of the Biafran war, moved its operations elsewhere, including to Bangladesh, and in the process became the template for the evolution of the modern Irish NGO (non-governmental organisation). Read More >>

Food:‘Where’s the Taj Mahal?’: Indian restaurants in Dublin since 1908 Food:‘Where’s the Taj Mahal?’: Indian restaurants in Dublin since 1908 The answer, as any listener to Larry Gogan’s ‘Just a minute, the 60-second quiz’ will know, is (or was) beside Dublin’s Dental Hospital in Lincoln Place. Michael Kennedy traces the history of the capital’s Indian restaurants over the past century. Read More >>

Gems of Architecture:Dromana Gate, Co. Waterford Gems of Architecture:Dromana Gate, Co. Waterford Damian Murphy describes a folly-like gatelodge in the Hindu Gothic style. Read More >>

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