Nick Maxwell In the longue durée, what significance will historians attach to the recent referendum result? One of the few areas of consensus in an otherwise divisive and polarised debate is that it reflects the ongoing decline of the influence of the Catholic Church. But what in turn does that tell us about the role of the … Read more
BBC2, RTÉ2, 2013–17 By Brian Hanley The BBC’s drama Peaky Blinders, a fifth series of which is planned for next year, has had a major popular impact since it was first broadcast in 2013. Set in the years after the Great War, and based loosely on a nineteenth-century Birmingham gang of the same name, it … Read more
Fasnet Films, directed by Lance Daly By Emily Mark-FitzGerald The much-anticipated Black ’47 has arrived on Irish screens, and it would seem that revenge for Skibbereen has been achieved at last. A visually stunning film set in Famine-ravaged Connemara in the titular year, Black ’47 blends the mythic narrative of the Western genre with a … Read more
The ‘third man’ in the case of British agent John Wyman and Garda Sergeant Patrick Crinnion. By Margaret Urwin and Niall Meehan On 1 December 1972 at 7.58 and 8.15pm, as the Irish Times reported, ‘Two [car] bombs in Dublin city centre killed two [CIÉ workers], injured 127 other people, and dramatically changed the course … Read more
Judge Henry Barron reported on the 1972–3 Dublin bombings in November 2004, after investigating the 1974 Dublin–Monaghan bombings. Barron relied on incomplete Garda files and testimony, as the British state refused to assist. Two individuals transported the first, 26 November 1972, bomb to the blast point. Car bombs were used afterwards. Barron suggested that republicans … Read more