Nick Maxwell Ribbonism had its origins in the militant Catholic nationalism of the eighteenth-century Defender secret societies. It continued to survive in the post-Famine years in the form of a benevolent society and it later transitioned into Hibernianism, which in turn allied itself to the Irish Parliamentary Party under Joe Devlin. Though there was some affinity with … Read more
Sir,—Rather than prolong the correspondence between myself and D.R. O’Connor Lysaght relating to my opinion that Arthur Griffith has been made a scapegoat for anti-Semitism in Ireland (argued in my article in HI 24.3, May/June 2016), may I simply refer those who are interested to a longer but related article in the current issue of … Read more
Sir,—Mark Phelan (HI 25.1, Jan./Feb. 2017) appears not to have consulted James Barros’s The Corfu Incident of 1923: Mussolini and the League of Nations (1965). Had he done so, he would have been encouraged to mention an important factor absent from his article—that the Treaty of London of 1864 (to which Britain, France, Russia, Prussia … Read more
By Lar Joye With the failure of the invasion of Canada in 1866 and the rising of March 1867 (see HI 16.6, Nov./Dec. 2008: The Fenians—150th anniversary special), the Fenian movement moved its focus to England. Fenianism had already spread to England in the preceding years and had close associations with English working-class movements there. … Read more
The nationalist and patriot Thomas Davis (1814–45) is well known as a political journalist who developed his brand of cultural nationalism in the Nation newspaper and as a dynamic contributor to Daniel O’Connell’s repeal campaign. While Davis has been described as a romantic and an idealist, he displayed considerable pragmatism in his views on educating … Read more