Nick Maxwell

Political Lessons in Castleblayney The 8th of March 1976 was a memorable school day for me but for the wrong reasons. The night before, a loyalist bomb had exploded in my hometown of Castleblayney, Co. Monaghan, killing one man and devastating its centre. Although my primary school, Annalitten NS, is situated three miles from town, … Read more

The ‘Castle Document’

By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr There was a small press at Count Plunkett’s home of Larkfield, Kimmage, on which it is said that the ‘Castle Document’ was printed on 13 April 1916. This document alleged that the Dublin Castle authorities proposed to arrest many important public figures, and to raid homes and buildings: ‘First, the … Read more

Celtic lightning: how the Scots and the Irish created a Canadian nation

KEN McGOOGAN HarperCollins $29.99 ISBN 9781443425506 Reviewed by Dean Jobb Celtic lightning ends with a beginning. Author Ken McGoogan describes how, in 1863, two political opponents joined forces with a common goal—to unite four of Britain’s North American colonies and form a new country, Canada. John A. Macdonald was a Glasgow-born political dynamo, a master … Read more

Educating Ireland: schooling and social change, 1700–2000

DEIRDRE RAFTERY and KARIN FISCHER (eds) Irish Academic Press €22.45 ISBN 9780716532446 Reviewed by Colm Mac Gearailt This book is not a survey of the education system as it progressed in Ireland. It offers instead vignettes of different areas of educational policy, both official and unofficial, from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, and their … Read more