Nick Maxwell By Fiona Fitzsimons Between 1840 and 1853 vaccination acts introduced free, compulsory immunisation against smallpox in England and Wales. Similar laws for Ireland were enacted in 1863. The Compulsory Vaccination (Ireland) Act required parents and guardians to vaccinate every child born after 1 January 1864, with a follow-up appointment within eight days to determine the … Read more
The man who paved the way for Parnell by awakening the moribund constitutional nationalist spirit. By Bruce Kelley On the evening of 19 May 1870, some of the most important political figures in Ireland assembled in the great room of Bilton’s Hotel, Dublin. It was a meeting unique in the history of Ireland and which … Read more
How the Irish authorities grappled with the past in the context of the present. By John Gibney On 1 November 1970 James Daly was reinterred in Tyrellspass, Co. Westmeath, almost exactly 50 years after he had been executed in India. Born in Ballymoe at the turn of the century, he had grown up in Tyrellspass … Read more
Dublin Road, Dundalk, Co. Louth By Jane Wales Begun in 1967 and opened in 1970, the P.J. Carroll factory was designed by Ronnie Tallon (1927–2014), the renowned Irish architect of the firm of Scott Tallon Walker Architects. Tallon’s design is a clear homage to the great German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), one … Read more
One form tended to be rough and sometimes led to serious injury. By J.M. Tobin When thirteen men gathered in Hayes’s Hotel, Thurles, on Saturday 1 November 1884 to establish the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), few could have envisaged the impact that their initiative would have on Irish sport, not least on the game of … Read more