Nick Maxwell By Seán Beattie As summer turns to autumn, the trees in our parks and gardens still retain their beauty, bringing bright and glorious colours into our lives, whatever level of lockdown we have had to endure. In the sheltered environs of the Phoenix Park, the walled gardens of Áras an Uachtaráin enclose some of the … Read more
Needless to say, the ongoing kite-flying by the British government of a de facto amnesty in the form of a statute of limitations for crimes committed by members of the British security forces during the Northern Ireland Troubles 1968–98 is not what I had in mind in my last editorial (‘The Civil War and amnesty’). … Read more
According to British Prime Minister David Lloyd George Irish nationalists were ‘natural propagandists’. How accurate was this description? How did they breach what Arthur Griffith called the ‘paper wall’ of British news coverage? How important was the new medium of film? And what was the role of women as both the disseminators and objects of … Read more
Author Bryan MacMahon in conversation with Tommy Graham (editor, History Ireland) In West Kerry between 1825-45, the work of Protestant evangelicals was widely hailed as a model of a successful missionary campaign; however, it evoked a furious response from Catholic priests. The war of words between clergymen of both persuasions was fomented by rival local … Read more
Kilkenny was described by Ernie O’Malley as ‘slack’ during the War of Independence. Was this really the case? Kilkenny has a notable revolutionary history—as crucible of the Tithe War (1830s), birthplace of one the founders of the IRB, James Stephens (1858), and a rebel turnout, albeit small (1916). Also, the attack and capture of Hugginstowm … Read more