Nick Maxwell Sir, —In one of the earliest published works on the subject of fireprotection in these islands—Fires, fire engines, and fire brigades(London, 1866)—C.F.T. Young CE attributes the first steam fire engineever made in Ireland to one James Shekleton, engineer, of Dundalk, Co.Louth. Young gives a lengthy description of the engine, which weighed22cwt and was built ‘on … Read more
Enda Staunton The story of the ill-fated Boundary Commission has often been told: how it was established under Article XII of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty to determine the extent of the North/South border ‘in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants, so far as may be compatible with economic and geographic conditions’; how it was … Read more
Sir, —With reference to the review of David Lynch’s Radical politics inmodern Ireland: the Irish Socialist Republican Party, 1896–1904 byFintan Lane in the May/June issue of HI, the ISRP did not come to anend in 1904. George Spain of Manchester was a member of the IrishRepublican Brotherhood. He fought in the 1916 Rising and the … Read more
Sir, —Further to the letter in the July/August 2005 issue of HI by FelixM. Larkin regarding errors in the Oxford Dictionary of NationalBiography entry on Edmund Dwyer Gray (1845–88), there is a furtherpossible error in one edition of that publication, which states that hemarried a young lady named Caroline Agnes Chisolm, author of TheEmigrant’s Friend, … Read more
Sir, —With regard to my article in the last issue (HI 13.5, Sept./Oct.2005) on revising the history of Europe, a small correction lest I leftany reader puzzled. Where I am discussing the beginnings of Europe,instead of ‘three centuries earlier under the declining Roman power’please read ‘six centuries earlier’.—Yours etc., Desmond Fennell Sir, —I would like … Read more