Nick Maxwell National Gallery of Ireland until 8 January 2023 By Niamh MacNally This exhibition, dedicated to the Irish artist Estella Solomons (1882–1968), comprises eighteen artworks, with loans drawn from public and private collections across the island of Ireland. It also includes items from the Estella Solomons and Seumas O’Sullivan archive, housed in the Library of Trinity … Read more
As we enter the home stretch of the ‘decade of centenaries’, another anniversary heaves in sight—the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement next year. It will hardly be a celebration. At the time of writing we still don’t have a functioning power-sharing executive, and that’s been the norm for all but two of the … Read more
How have Irish Travellers fared since the foundation of the state a century ago, and in particular since the 1963 Report of the Commission on Itinerancy? What are the challenges facing the current generation of Traveller activists? How can non-Travellers be effective allies? To address these and related questions, join History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, in discussion with Martin Collins, Rose … Read more
At the outbreak of the Irish Civil War in June 1922 the anti-Treaty IRA numbered some 15,000, holding key positions in Dublin and throughout the country, in particular behind a defensive line running from Limerick to Waterford (the so-called ‘Munster Republic’). Their pro-Treaty opponents in the newly-formed National Army numbered less than half that. Why … Read more
On 22 August 1922, Michael Collins was killed at Béal na Bláth, Co. Cork. But what if he had survived? Would he have become a military dictator? (Was he one already?) Would he have been more or less ruthless than his successors in prosecuting the Civil War? Would he have torn up the Treaty and … Read more