Sir,—Ivan Gibbons’s and Cormac Moore’s balanced account of the Boundary Commission (HI 33.6, Nov./Dec. 2025, pp 36–42) and John Gibney’s review of David McCullagh’s From crown to harp (HI 34.2, March/April 2026) together illuminate how decisively the Irish question of the 1920s was shaped by constitutional process and diplomatic accommodation. Yet one dimension of the … Read more
Sir,—With every issue of History Ireland, my university days (Sussex, in the days of historian Asa Briggs) are vindicated. In those days, as well as the main course, there were term-time contextual courses—i.e. looking at the main through different angles, seeing things sideways, taking another stance etc. Damian Murphy’s interesting piece on Kildare Cathedral (HI … Read more
Sir,—Sylvie Kleinman reviewed (HI 34.1, Jan./Feb. 2026, pp 52–3) Netflix’s titillating but, to my mind, historically absurd—at least in relation to the Fenians—series, House of Guinness. She believes that viewers are ‘edified’ that we are treated to a ‘committed, principled and fabricated Fenian babe [my emphasis] activist Ellen’. I certainly wasn’t. I know that it’s … Read more
Sir,—On This Day (HI 34.2, March/April 2026, p. 9) was illustrated with a thumbnail portrait image of Thomas Drummond, the under-secretary for Ireland. It is a detail of an engraving by Edward Burton after a painted portrait by W.H. Pickersgill that is now in the National Galleries of Scotland. How it got there is a … Read more
Sir,—I refer to Robert Grendon’s ‘Drunk at the wheel’ article (HI 34.2, March/April 2026, pp 48–51). No history of the regulation of drink driving offences in Ireland would be complete without generous mention of the late Gertie Shields (1950–2015). Her daughter Paula (19) was among six young people killed by a drunk driver near the … Read more