Nick Maxwell Sir,—In their letter (HI 26.3, May/June 2018), Andy Bielenberg and John Borgonovo quoted from an article in the May 1922 issue of Poblacht na h-Éireann by Erskine Childers. He denounced strongly what had happened in the previous month at Dunmanway: ‘Sectarian crime is the foulest crime’. They omitted, however, another part of the article where … Read more
The Book of Ballymote became O’Gorman’s property when he purchased it for £20 from a millwright’s widow in Drogheda. O’Gorman deciphered the Ogham script and translated it. He asked Gabriel Beranger, a Dutch artist interested in illustrating Irish antiquities, to copy some of its illustrations. He left it with Cathal Ó Conchobhair of Belanagare (The … Read more
BY TONY CANAVAN Plans for the National Museum of Ireland Josepha Madigan TD, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, recently launched the National Museum of Ireland’s (NMI) €85m, fifteen-year ‘master vision statement’ with extensive plans for the four museums in its charge. The Natural History Museum (a.k.a. the ‘dead zoo’) will be extended, … Read more
The chevalier brothers-in-law—Thomas O’Gorman, antiquary, genealogist and wine merchant, and Charles-Geneviève d’Éon de Beaumont, transgender diplomat and spy. By Seán O’Halloran The publication of a recently discovered copy of the manuscript of the genealogy of the house of O’Reilly by Clachan Publishing has drawn attention to its compiler, the largely forgotten eighteenth-century antiquary Chevalier Thomas … Read more
Ireland and the history of blasphemy. By David Nash For much of the twentieth century, western governments believed either that blasphemy laws were long-dead fragments of a bygone age or that they simply sat quietly and unnoticed in dust-laden legal volumes away from the public gaze. Events at the end of the twentieth century indicated … Read more