October 29
1971 Two men were killed and 27 injured in an unclaimed IRA bomb attack on the crowded Four Step Inn on Belfast’s Shankill Road.
Nick Maxwell
ON THIS DAY
BY AODHÁN CREALEY SEPTEMBER 30/1930 F.E. Smith (58), 1st Earl of Birkenhead, politician, died. Elected Conservative MP for Liverpool—then the stronghold of Orangeism in Britain—in 1906, Birkenhead first appeared in the nationalist narrative during the Home Rule crisis (1912), when he served as Edward Carson’s aide-de-camp, a role which earned him the moniker ‘Galloper Smith’. … Read more
THE LASTING LEGACY OF THE LAST VICEROY
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
Fingal in the revolutionary decade
To what extent did the military tactics of Thomas Ashe’s (5th) Fingal battalion of the Irish Volunteers in 1916 prefigure those of the IRA in the War of Independence, 1919-21? To what extent did the sack of Balbriggan in September 1920 provide the template for subsequent reprisals by Crown force? To discuss the role of … Read more
The lasting legacy of the last viceroy
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