Nick Maxwell The misericords of St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick. By Charlotte Murphy St Mary’s Church of Ireland cathedral in Limerick possesses the only set of medieval choir-stalls to survive Ireland’s troubled past. Attached to the underside of these stalls—or misericords, as they are more usually known—are fascinating carvings. There are also bosses of a grotesque nature at … Read more
By Colum Kenny Born in England in 1905, when Arthur Griffith first articulated his Sinn Féin policy, Frank Pakenham became the 7th Lord Longford in 1961. He grew up between his Anglo-Irish family’s mansion in Oxfordshire, their house in London and a castle in County Westmeath. If one book has shaped most profoundly the reputation … Read more
Sir,—In relation to your recent article on the nineteenth-century Maynooth scientist Revd Nicholas Callan (HI 30.1, Jan./Feb. 2022), your readers may be interested in a reference to him which I recently encountered while researching the nineteenth-century Church of Ireland polemicist Revd John Duncan Craig. In Real pictures of clerical life in Ireland (London, 2nd edition, … Read more
Sir,—May I comment on the piece by Stephen Kelly (HI 30.2, March/April 2022)? It seems to me that throughout his political career Charles Haughey adhered to the Constitution enacted by the electorate, which pledged Ireland’s adherence to the principle of seeking the peaceful resolution of international disagreements as outlined in Article 29, and that he … Read more
Sir,—I had hoped that, as a result of the manner in which recent years’ public health measures have highlighted a natural discrepancy between politicians’ democratic ideals and the policies their governments may pursue in an emergency, we would hear no more about Michael Collins’s supposed formation of a ‘military dictatorship’ during the Civil War. The … Read more