Nick Maxwell One of the perils of editorial writing, especially in a bi-monthly magazine such as this, is the risk of giving hostages to fortune. By the time you read this, the context in which it is received might have been altered by a breaking news story. Thus in my last I opined that ‘… the Irish … Read more
Author Katharine Simms in conversation with Hiram Morgan (UCC) Gaelic Ulster was once a vigorous, confident society, whose members fought and feasted, sang and prayed. It maintained schools of poets, physicians, historians and lawyers, whose studies were conducted largely in their own Gaelic language, rather than in the dead Latin of medieval schools elsewhere in … Read more
No other woman who never set foot on the island—with the possible exception of Queen Elizabeth I—has had a greater effect on the history of Ireland. But who was Katharine O’Shea (née Wood)? And what if she and Charles Stewart Parnell never met? Listen to History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, discuss this contrafactual with Mary Kenny, Patrick Maume, Daniel Mulhall, and Margaret … Read more
In relation to Daniel Mulhall’s article “Parallel Parnell” in the May/June 2010 issue, which speculates on the course Parnell’s career might have taken if he had married in 1880 and never become involved with Katherine O’Shea: Parnell seems to be the figure of modern Irish history who most strongly attracts counterfactual speculation. This is because he … Read more
‘Spies and informers beware!’—intelligence and counterintelligence in the War of Independence One of the most important—and controversial—aspects of the War of Independence was the ‘intelligence war’. Given the role of spies and informers in defeating previous insurrections, it is not surprising that Michael Collins, the IRA’s Director of Intelligence, was keen to insure that history … Read more