Count Gerald O’Kelly de Gallagh

The Irish in occupied France were fortunate to have an unjustly forgotten individual to look after their interests. When the official Irish legation followed the French government to Vichy, Count Gerald O’Kelly de Gallagh, from County Tipperary, was posted back to Paris as ‘special plenipotentiary’. Count O’Kelly thus defied German and Vichy French instructions for … Read more

The Athenæum

Castle Street, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford By Sarah Buckley A meeting on 4 February 1891 set in motion plans for an important public building in Enniscorthy, one intended for the cultural improvement of the town and its people but which became a centre of revolution in 1916. At the meeting, Revd William Fortune (1848–1925) expressed the … Read more

KINDRED LINES

Quaker records in Ireland By Fiona Fitzsimons In the 1650s and ’60s the Quakers, emerging as one of the more radical Dissenter groups, began to migrate to Ireland. They sought converts among the Irish population, many of whom were of English descent and spoke the English language. The Restoration (1660) transformed the Quaker religion. They … Read more

‘Red Easter’

Excerpt/translation from Kerzhentsev’s Revolutsiayannaya Irlandiya (1918): Easter Monday in Ireland — a day with an aura of reverence. Therefore, the arrival of a small group of Irish volunteers in the province did not give rise amongst individuals to any particular attention. The vigilance of the administration was weakened, even more so, [as] many responsible people were on … Read more