Nick Maxwell BY DECLAN BARRON Ireland in the 1820s was divided on the question of religious liberty. In 1825 the Protestant establishment in Dublin formed the Royal York Club to conserve the status quo and prevent Catholic Emancipation. The following year Daniel O’Connell formed the Order of Liberators to honour supporters for standing up for Catholic rights, … Read more
By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr The violence of the War of Independence was at first deeply unpopular with the broader Irish public, but attitudes changed gradually in the face of the British government’s campaign of widespread brutality, destruction of property, random arrests, reprisals and unprovoked shootings. The small groups of Volunteers on the run were … Read more
The English saint has a surprisingly long history in Ireland. BY FRANCIS YOUNG Ireland’s patron saint, St Patrick, is today internationally synonymous with the country he represents—to a greater extent, perhaps, than any other nation’s patron saint. Yet in the fourteenth century the English in Ireland made an audacious (and ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to make … Read more
Why do the academic historians of Ireland seem to speak for rather than to power? BY FEARGHAL MAC BHLOSCAIDH Ireland is more than halfway through a ‘decade of centenaries’ commemorating the revolutionary period. It is also, quite apart from the COVID-19 pandemic, in the midst of a decade-long economic and political crisis (at the time … Read more
BY TONY CANAVAN Big plans for small paintings put on hold The exhibition of a collection of Irish miniature portraits, which took more than 40 years to assemble, has had to be put on hold because of COVID-19. Sold recently at auction in London for £98,000, the Comerford Collection, which consists of 121 items, has … Read more