Nick Maxwell 2006 Saddam Hussein was hanged in Baghdad, having been found guilty of crimes against humanity after a twelve-month trial. 1916 Grigori Rasputin (47), Russian peasant, faith healer and favourite of Czar Nicholas II and his family, was poisoned with wine and tea cakes, shot and drowned in the River Neva. 1691 Robert Boyle (64), chemist … Read more
Cyprus Avenue/Fine Points Films, directed by Brendan J. Byrne By Breandán Mac Suibhne At the time of the Hunger Strikes, one issue animating Irish critics was the relationship between fiction and history. Translations (1980)—Brian Friel’s play about language and politics, loss, learning and betrayal—had, some argued, distorted history. Set in Donegal in 1833, the play … Read more
Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 6 August–24 September 2016 By Eamon O’Flaherty The most common question posed when deciding whether a work of art can be called a classic is whether it can survive the tendency of most things to decline with age and the passage of time. Even history, which through rhetoric can claim to be … Read more
1919 Lady (Nancy) Astor became the first woman to take a seat in the Westminster House of Commons. 1956 Ronnie Delaney (21) won a gold medal for Ireland in the 1,500 metres at the Olympic Games in Melbourne, the first since Bob Tisdall in 1932. 1666 Sir James Ware (72), antiquary and historiographer, author notably … Read more
Gambit Pictures, RTÉ1, 25 August 2016 Bob Jackson, A doctor’s sword: how an Irish doctor survived war, captivity and the atomic bomb (Collins Press, €22.99 hb, 304pp, ISBN 9781848892866) By John Gibney A doctor’s sword begins, naturally enough, with the eponymous sword of the title: a Japanese katana (usually, if incorrectly, dubbed a ‘samurai’ sword) … Read more