By Ruairí Nolan On a crisp, cool evening in early July 1867 the steamboat G.A. Thompson chugged its way down the Missouri River, Montana, towards Camp Cooke. As a lone sentry patrolled the upper decks, he spotted from the corner of his eye a man hastily making for the rear of the boat, dressed in … Read more
By Dermot McGuinne The nineteenth-century Irish polymath George Petrie is perhaps best remembered for his remarkable topographical watercolour paintings, his discoveries in areas of archaeological and antiquarian interest, and his extensive collection of early Irish music. Few, however, would readily associate him with the design and production of printing types. Consequently, the true measure of … Read more
By Henry A. Jefferies According to one historian, Gaelic Ireland in the sixteenth century was ‘a society in which sexual expression was uninhibited’, but that strange assertion was based on absolutely no evidence whatsoever. Indeed, it is contradicted by a basic fact of human biology: uninhibited sexual expression before modern contraceptives became available could have … Read more
JOHN WILSON FOSTER Belcouver Press £10.99 ISBN 9780993560743 REVIEWED BY Ian d’Alton Ian d’Alton is a member of the Church of Ireland Historical Centenaries Working Group. Having learning and intelligence, it isn’t easy to accept in your heart of hearts that history may not be on your side. It seems to me that that’s Jack … Read more
DONAL HALL and EOIN MAGENNIS Four Courts Press €22.45 ISBN 9781801510806 Reviewed by Patrick Mulroe Patrick Mulroe is a recipient of a Royal Irish Academy Decade of Centenaries Bursary looking at Northern Ireland in 1922. This is the latest in the series from Four Courts Press examining individual counties in the revolutionary period. Like other … Read more