100 YEARS AGO: First War of Independence raid on British soldiers (and first reprisal), Fermoy, September 1919

By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr The first organised action against British military forces after the Rising took place at Fermoy on Sunday 7 September 1919. The IRA’s Cork No. 2 Brigade carried it out under the command of Liam Lynch. Their objective was an armed party of British soldiers who attended Sunday service at the … Read more

BITE-SIZED HISTORY

BY TONY CANAVAN Alcock and Brown return to Clifden The two men who made aviation history by becoming the first to fly non-stop across the Atlantic are returning to the landing spot in the west of Ireland where their plane touched down 100 years ago. A statue of John Alcock and Arthur Brown that normally … Read more

Plan S

The implications for history journals, researchers and learned societies. By Jacqueline Hill Recent decades have seen certain publishers of science journals focus chiefly on profit. Naturally, libraries and other subscribers find such costs extremely challenging. A simple example should suffice. A one-year library subscription to the journal Irish Historical Studies, published by Cambridge University Press, … Read more

ON THIS DAY

SEPTEMBER 08/1806 Patrick Cotter (46), giant, died. Born in Kinsale, Co. Cork, Cotter was just eighteen when he began exhibiting himself in England as Patrick Cotter O’Brien, ‘a lineal descendant of the old puissant King Brien Boreau’. It was recorded that Cotter ‘had less imbecility of mind than the generality of overgrown persons’ but also … Read more

The story of Clones lace

By Dianne McPhelim The Revd and Mrs Cassandra Hand arrived in the small country town of Clones, Co. Monaghan, in October 1847, bringing with them a family of seven children and memories of a comfortable life in England. Born in 1809, the ninth child of the Molyneux family, Cassandra had enjoyed a privileged upbringing in … Read more