Nick Maxwell In the late 1930s the general public in Dublin had been agitating through the newspapers for better transport facilities, specifically the provision of bus shelters along the quays where long-distance passengers caught their buses. In 1937 the Irish Builder and Engineer suggested that a central bus station be constructed on the bonding warehouse site next … Read more
Vilified by her English adversaries as ‘a woman who hath imprudently passed the part of womanhood’, Grace O’Malley was ignored by contemporary chroniclers in Ireland, yet her memory survived in native folklore. Nationalists later lionised her as Gráinne Mhaol, a warrior who would come over the sea with Irish soldiers to rout the English. She … Read more
Ireland and Auschwitz This period marks the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and other Nazi extermination camps. Here it has been marked by a particularly Irish form of commemoration—the vandalisation of a public monument, in this case the decapitation of the statue of IRA leader Seán Russell in Dublin’s Fairview Park. In the … Read more
Sir, —Thank you for publishing the article by David Franklin about Eamon de Valera’s 1920 visit to Birmingham, Alabama, in the last issue (Winter 2004). He makes reference to the murder of Father James Edwin Coyle. A native of Drum, Athlone, Co. Roscommon, Father Coyle spent his priestly life in Alabama from 1896 to 1921. … Read more
Welcome back As Mark Twain might have said, ‘. . . rumours of our death have been grossly exaggerated’. After a brief interruption of transmission, normal service has been resumed. History Ireland is back under new management. We appreciate the loyalty and patience of our readers, and our subscribers in particular should rest assured that … Read more