Nick Maxwell In this centenary year of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses (see ‘Seen on TV’, pp 52–3, and ‘Museum Eye’, pp 56–7), it is tempting to apply the condescending observation of one of its characters, Englishman Haines—‘It seems history is to blame’—to the present crisis in Ukraine. It might be more accurate to observe that … Read more
The Anglo-Irish Treaty sparked turmoil within the IRA. Some accepted it and joined the ranks of the Provisional Government’s new ‘National Army’; some remained neutral; the majority opposed it, but with the added twist that on the eve of the Civil War there were two anti-Treaty factions of the IRA, not one. Two Army Conventions, … Read more
While an uneasy peace prevailed in the South following the Truce of July 1921, in Northern Ireland communal violence continued to rage, exemplified most notoriously on 24 March 1922 by the killings of a ‘respectable’ Catholic family, the McMahons, by an RIC ‘murder gang’. Was this a ‘one-off’ by a ‘rogue’ element or part of … Read more
So said the long white apron of suffragette and socialist Margaret Buckmaster at a protest in July 1921 organised by the Peace with Ireland Council (PIC). How significant were such anti-colonial solidarity movements in Britain in the revolutionary period? How effective were they? To address these and related questions, join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with Darragh Gannon, Angus … Read more
By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr Following the Treaty debates, the most ‘republican’ members of the IRA, the Dáil and the public still refused to accept the Treaty or the authority of the newly established Provisional Government. Typical of the former was Rory O’Connor, IRA GHQ’s director of engineering during the War of Independence, when his … Read more