Nick Maxwell Another look at the 23 April 1918 general strike against conscription. By Padraig Yeates As the Voice of Labour, the organ of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, put it at the time, ‘In numbers, in spirit, in determination, in resolve, in decision, Labour in Ireland has done nothing in its history to equal … Read more
By Lar Joye Early in 1918 the British government announced that it would introduce conscription to Ireland, forcing young men to join the army or face a jail sentence. This action united Irish nationalists, who circulated anti-conscription cartoons and buttons, and signed pledges promising to assist young men to avoid service. The British Army was … Read more
‘The head of a landlord in one hand and the tail of a cow in the other—these are the arguments to use when you argue with an Englishman.’ By Phelim Brady Given Michael Collins’s reputation as the ‘Irish Pimpernel’, it might surprise some to learn that he was once arrested in broad daylight in the … Read more
The political conversion of Orangeman Frederick Youell. By Quincey Dougan In its 21 January 1909 edition, the Belfast Weekly News contained an editorial entitled ‘The Vanguard County’, a report on the proceedings of the recently held meeting of the County Grand Orange Lodge of Leitrim, and it was unusual in that it also included portraits … Read more
The nearest Orange lodge to Ballinamore was Corgar Loyal Orange Lodge 332, and it was there that Youell joined the Orange Institution. LOL 332 had been continually in existence since 1798, with one of the strongest historical lineages of the lodges of Leitrim. Ballinamore had been the scene of serious rioting in the early nineteenth … Read more