Sir,—I am an Irish American. My great-grandfather, Samuel Munce, was born in Ireland in 1858 and came to live in the States in 1888. I am also a new subscriber to History Ireland. As a lover of history, I was very excited to sit down this morning and begin to read my very first issue. … Read more
BY DONAL FALLON NO FLUNKEYISM HERE! In 1900 Queen Victoria arrived in Dublin to considerable fanfare, as the Second Boer War rumbled on. Donal P. McCracken, a leading authority on Ireland and the conflict, notes that ‘signs of disloyalty were dwarfed by the great ceremony and large crowds surrounding the queen’, as the authorities moved … Read more
BY AODHÁN CREALEY SEPTEMBER 23/1878 Bernard ‘Barney’ Hughes (70), baker and philanthropist, died. Starting out as a humble apprentice, Hughes opened his first bakery in 1840, and three decades later, with a portfolio that included flour mills, ships to import grain and a string of shops, was Belfast’s leading baker, with the biggest baking and … Read more
By John Gray The Assembly Rooms are to Belfast what Leinster House and the Guildhall are to Dublin and London respectively. No one would dare propose that they should be converted into boutique hotels or allowed to fall into dangerous dereliction. Yet that is precisely what has happened to our Assembly Rooms. Located in Belfast’s … Read more
By Catriona Crowe On 13 June 2024, the Royal Irish Academy hosted a day-long symposium, Archives, Access and Human Rights. The idea originated from the Academy’s Historical Studies Committee and was organised by a working group that I chaired. We set about exploring two issues relating to access to archives: (1) difficulties with access to … Read more