Nick Maxwell Eoin Bourke When the bankrupt dandy Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau arrived in 1828 more or less by coincidence, his mind was a clean slate with regard to Ireland. He was appalled by the squalor he saw. ‘The dirt, poverty and ragged dress of the common man’, he exclaimed, ‘is beyond belief!’ Of the city of … Read more
Hiram Morgan Major Henry McClintock’s Old Irish Dress (1943) has been an inspiration and a pleasure to many readers. In this and later editions he assembled many of the sources—written, pictorial and archaeological—relating to Irish costume from the earliest times. His labours have only recently been superseded by Mairead Dunlevy’s Dress in Ireland (1989). In … Read more
Dagmar Ó Riain When Duke Heinrich II issued a charter for the newly founded Irish monastery in Vienna in the year 1161, he stipulated that, as far as its occupants were concerned, Irishmen only need apply! The new … Read more
Sir,—In his recent letter (HI 4.4, Spring 1997) Patrick Maume correctly states that in some districts Protestant yeomanry corps continued to exist on an unofficial basis following the disbandment of the yeomanry as a body. He also says that such a body existed in the Crom Castle area of Fermanagh under the patronage of the … Read more
Sir,—I noticed a few assertions in Timothy Bowman’s article, The Irish at the Somme (HI 4.4, Winter 1996), which I believe are incorrect. Firstly, Mr Bowman mentions that there were twenty-three ‘Irish’ battalions at the Somme; there were several more that I am aware of, namely: 1st and 2nd battalions/18th London Regiment (London Irish Rifles), … Read more