Nick Maxwell By Joe Culley @TheRealCulls The only thing bland about this young Irish woman was her name, Lilian Bland. Born in 1878 (in Kent, admittedly) to an affluent family with roots in Antrim, by the turn of the century she was living in Ireland and rebelling against convention in every way. She was, for example, working … Read more
During the reign of King George I, a legal onus was placed on parishes in Ireland to provide fire-fighting equipment. By Pat Poland Just over 300 years ago, on 2 November 1719, the legal obligation of providing a ‘community fire service’ was laid on the Established Church, the last non-permissive piece of fire-fighting legislation in … Read more
Cranwell was born in Auckland, New Zealand, and moved to Ireland around 1969/70 with his Cork girlfriend, Una Cassidy, whom he later married. In 1973 Cranwell won the Leinster Open and received his first cap for the Ireland team. A profile of Cranwell for Squash Review noted that he ‘regards himself as an Irishman—or the … Read more
In Wexford and Limerick, as in Irish counties as a whole, at least seven kinds of place-names with Scandinavian affiliations have been identified by the author. Apart from the more than thirty well-known examples such as the Arklows, Wicklows and Wexfords, the number of definitive Norse place-names to be identified for Ireland may be at least … Read more
The growth of squash in Ireland in the 1970s was partially attributed to the sponsorship by Dunlop of the Irish Open in 1973 and the success of Irish player Jonah Barrington. The Squash Review believed that Barrington ‘did for squash what Muhammed Ali did for boxing’. Barrington was born in Cornwall to Irish parents from … Read more