Nick Maxwell Dracula! The very name conjures up visions of mist-shrouded ruined castles in the mountains of Transylvania and of superstitious peasants huddled together in some Moldavian village inn. Forget all that—Dracula might be closer than you think! In fact, the true home of the vampire count might more correctly lie in Ireland! Leacht Abhartach In the … Read more
Diarmaid Ferriter lectures in history at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra. Clodagh Tait is a postgraduate history student at University College Cork; Hans S. Pawlisch works at the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Washington DC; Mícheál Ó Siochrú lectures in early modern Irish history at Trinity College, Dublin; Dominic Bryan lectures … Read more
For a long time Irish nationalism was seen primarily in terms of political movements, and there has been a tendency to identify with mass movements rather than elites. Recent theories which emphasise how educational and social obstacles to upward mobility for minorities in a professional society encourage nationalist movements has revived interest in the Catholic … Read more
That Ireland escaped the familiar pattern of post-colonial military despotism is remarkable given that our political forebears emerged from a militant milieu. The transition from militancy to constitutional democracy is best examined in the context of the State’s attitude to violence. Beginning with a refreshingly candid account of the civil war, Defending Ireland traces the … Read more
In the seventeenth-century poem ‘Tuireamh na hÉireann’, the war in Ireland between 1641 and 1653 is described as ‘an cogadh do chríochnaigh Éire’ [the war that finished Ireland], and there is no disputing the importance of Cromwell’s impact on this conflict. He landed at Ringsend in August 1649, and during the subsequent nine-month campaign displayed … Read more