Barron Report on 1972–3 bombings: error and omission

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

Travellers and family history

By Fiona Fitzsimons In 2017, Irish Travellers were recognised as a distinct ethnic community within the state. Then-taoiseach Enda Kenny said: ‘Our Traveller community is an integral part of our society for over a millennium, with their own distinct identity—a people within our people’. Kenny’s reference to a millennium of Traveller society was a nod … Read more

Anti-suffragette postcards, c. 1913

  By Donna Gilligan The use of the postcard as a medium of mass communication was embraced by the international women’s suffrage movement, which recognised it as a cheap and effective means of propaganda. Women’s suffrage was also a postcard theme used frequently by commercial publishers, who commonly produced designs that showed suffrage campaigners in … Read more

‘Coming Home: Art and the Great Hunger’

Coach House, Dublin Castle, www.artandthegreathunger.org Until the end of June 2018 By Tony Canavan ‘Coming Home: Art and the Great Hunger’ is the world’s largest collection of art relating to the Great Famine. Its permanent home is in Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University, Connecticut. (Readers may remember that it featured in a previous … Read more