Matilda Tone & the American legacy of 1798

Despite the enormous wealth of sources, and much superb ethnic historiography over the course of two centuries, the story of 1798 and the United Irish diaspora has consistently escaped the attention of mainstream political historians. One obvious example was the prodigious nineteenth-century biographer R.R. Madden who invariably concluded his memoirs of numerous United Irish exiles … Read more

Cities in Eastern & Western Europe

The third conference of the European Association of Urban Historians was held at the Central European University, Budapest, on 29-31 August 1996 where papers dealt with a variety of aspects of the European city from  early modern times to the twentieth century.The key-note speech by Professor Heinz Schilling (Humboldt University, Berlin), delivered in Budapest Town … Read more

New light shed on Stormont’s ‘X’ Files

by Éamon Phoenix     In October the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland released 3,000 files of the old Stormont Ministry of Home Affairs dealing with the period 1921-1962 and previously embargoed on grounds of sensitivity. The files include the highly sensitive ‘S’ (Secret Series) files covering such subjects as the 1920s Troubles, internment … Read more

The Irish road to Argentina

During the nineteenth century, about 40,000 emigrants left Ireland to colonise the lush yet deserted Argentine pampas and laid the foundation for a flourishing Irish-Argentine community. Edmundo Murray tracks the journey from their home counties and their mode of transport. Most of the Irish emigrants bound for Argentina came from two areas, the coastline of … Read more

Orange déja vu?

by Proinsias Ó Conluain               Sir Patrick Mayhew’s setting up of an independent review of parades and marches in northern Ireland, under the chairmanship of Dr Peter North, follows a pattern set in the last century. Orange marches through mainly Catholic areas invariably led to resentment and riot, sometimes … Read more