Nick Maxwell By Diarmaid Ferriter Although over two and a half thousand Catholic churches were built in Ireland between the late eighteenth and the mid-nineteenth century, Dublin remained without a Catholic cathedral, as it does to this day. This situation may now be rectified, if long-mooted plans as part of what the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin calls … Read more
Sir,—With regard to your editorial ‘The Decade of Centenaries bites back’ (HI 32.1, Jan./Feb. 2024), there is another link between the Decade of Centenaries and what was happening in Palestine at the time. During the Treaty negotiations in 1921, as well as the ‘big’ issues, Michael Collins was also involved in the detail that taking … Read more
Sir,—Stephen Collins’s article on Longford elections (HI 32.2, March/April 2024, pp 22–5) captures the dynamics at play in local electoral politics during the 1830s. Learning of his own ancestors in the locality, and seeing their original family home in such good condition, was especially insightful. One might question how accurate it is to qualify ‘the … Read more
Sir,—Jim Smyth in his article ‘Wolfe Tone today’ (HI 32.1, Jan./Feb. 2024, pp 14–15) is less than fair to Patrick Pearse. It is contended that his famous 1913 Bodenstown oration tells us more about Pearse than about Tone. A reading of the speech shows otherwise. Pearse spends much of it praising the character of Tone, … Read more
Sir,—Aodhán Crealey’s concise biographical piece about Tyrone-born John King (HI 32.1, Jan./Feb. 2024, ‘On this day’) is an apt tribute to the sole survivor of the 1860–1 well-equipped but badly led first European expedition to cross Australia from south to north. King was then a 20-year-old camel driver. Readers may be interested in two recent … Read more