Nick Maxwell Historic fourteenth-century manuscript on public display for the first time. A remarkable fourteenth-century manuscript, the Red Book of Ossory, has returned to St Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, where it was written 700 years ago. On loan from the Representative Church Body (RCB) Library, the Red Book is on public display for the first time in history … Read more
In one of our podcasts analysing the 2020 general election (link below), historian Brian Hanley was emphatic that the Sinn Féin surge in that election represented a seismic shift in the political landscape. Despite a drop in Sinn Féin’s vote, that remains the case: the two historically dominant political parties have been replaced by three. … Read more
By Michael Flavin On Thursday 21 November 1974, a small IRA unit in Birmingham, acting without authorisation, planted bombs in two city-centre pubs, the Tavern in the Town in New Street and the Mulberry Bush in the Bull Ring. The Mulberry Bush was at the base of the Rotunda tower, a well-known Birmingham landmark, while … Read more
By David Burke Previously in History Ireland (HI 26.3, May/June 2018) Margaret Urwin and Niall Meehan re-examined the case of Patrick Crinnion, a senior Garda intelligence officer who, for over a decade, betrayed Garda security secrets to Britain’s MI6. The article provided convincing evidence that a man called Alex Forsey was part of a network … Read more
By Fergal Lenehan Diplomatic relations between Ireland and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) began formally only in 1980. Prior to that, a relatively small number of Irish people visited the GDR, while the Belfast-born illustrator and children’s author Elizabeth Shaw would appear to have been the sole person born on the island of Ireland who … Read more