Nick Maxwell HARMAN MURTAGH and DIARMUID MURTAGH Four Courts Press €45 ISBN 9781801511216 Reviewed by David Murphy The Williamite Wars (1688–91) were a seminal series of events in Irish history and they have been the focus of much historical writing in the centuries since. It would be true to say that the Battle of the Boyne (1690) … Read more
By Daragh Fitzgerald Alan Kelly’s The struggle for mastery in Ireland, 1442–1540: culture, politics and Kildare–Ormond rivalry documents the tussle for dominance of the English colony in Ireland between the leading magnate families at the time, the Fitzgeralds of Kildare and the Butlers of Ormond. These two leading houses of the old colonial community sustained … Read more
By Donal Fallon In Irish museum settings, clothing most often takes the form of military uniforms, but fashion has its place too. At the Collins Barracks site of the National Museum of Ireland, a dedicated space explores Ib Jorgensen’s unique contribution to Irish and international fashion, while The Way We Wore explores Irish clothing manufacturing … Read more
RTÉ1, 2 and 9 June 2024 and RTÉ Player Tile Films By Sylvie Kleinman This welcome but not unflawed two-part documentary attempts to redress the fact that the story of the Norman ‘invasion’ (and conquest) has never been ‘properly told on screen’, but does not always do so properly here. Ireland c. 850 years ago … Read more
By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr At the end of the Civil War the new Irish Free State set about providing a legal status for its armed forces. Under the Defence Forces (Temporary Provisions) Act (1923), the Executive Council officially established Óglaigh na hÉireann on 1 October 1924. The Defence Forces trace their origins to the … Read more