Nick Maxwell The contrasting fortunes of Lisburn’s two RIC district inspectors. By Ciaran Toal On 19 August 1920, the magistrates for County Antrim gathered in Lisburn’s courthouse, gifted to the town by Sir Richard Wallace (1818–90), to present an inscribed plate to Mr Vere Gregory (1871–1957). For ten years Gregory had served as RIC District Inspector (DI) … Read more
Irish posters for the Empire Marketing Board (EMB). By Billy Shortall In the aftermath of the Irish Civil War and in tough financial times, the Irish economy struggled to the extent that Minister for Finance Ernest Blythe infamously reduced teachers’ salaries and cut a shilling off the old age pension in 1924. Two years later, … Read more
Ballina, Co. Mayo By Damian Murphy The River Moy at Ballina is the permanent home of a vessel that has beguiled the observer ever since it first appeared there in the 1930s. Built of concrete, the SS Creteboom owes its origins to a steel shortage during the First World War. By 1917, accelerated war production … Read more
A little-known 1920 piece for string quartet celebrating the sacrifice of revolutionary hero Terence MacSwiney is a musical dedication worth reviving. By Axel Klein It was an illustrious crowd that filled the Salle des Fêtes of the Hotel Continental in Paris that Wednesday 25 January 1922. People gathered for a leisurely evening of entertainment after … Read more
An analysis of Facts and figures of the Belfast pogrom 1920–1922. By Kieran Glennon In the summer of 1922, someone who was not the originally intended author wrote a pamphlet under a pseudonym; it was published by a company that may not have actually existed, and all but eighteen copies were pulped before they left … Read more