Nick Maxwell Aside from serving white supremacist agendas, the ‘white slave’ narrative has been equally problematic in its exploitation of the ‘Redlegs’ of Barbados. The ‘poor whites’ that currently reside along the east coast of Barbados have been presented as a living fossil of the Cromwellian invasion of Ireland. Television documentaries, works of fiction and non-fiction, radio … Read more
The reluctance to differentiate between indentured servitude and perpetual chattel slavery in these contexts gives succour to ahistorical types, such as neo-Nazis, 9/11 Truthers and White Nationalists. Their propaganda includes a conspiracy theory claiming that historians avoid calling indentured servants ‘slaves’ for political reasons. They protest that historians are not to be trusted and that … Read more
WHY DID THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION FAIL IN IRELAND? By Henry A. Jefferies In terms of sheer importance in Irish history, few events compare with the Reformation. In particular, the contrasting outcomes of the Reformation in Ireland and Britain had profound consequences for Anglo-Irish relations over subsequent centuries, and still affect life in Northern Ireland to … Read more
Sir,—Fiona Fitzsimons’s ‘Estate records as a source for family history’ (HI 23.6, Nov./Dec. 2015, p. 37) raises the question of where such records are to be appropriately housed. When I wrote my biography of Charles Acton of Kilmacurragh, Co. Wicklow (Charles: the life and worlds of Charles Acton, 1914–1999), I had access to the extant … Read more
Sir,—Gabriel Doherty writes how Michael Davitt ‘thought little’ of O’Donovan Rossa (HI 23.6, Nov./Dec. 2015, Platform). A man of Davitt’s moral stature couldn’t possibly condone Rossa’s dynamite campaign. However, in the course of his monumental speech before the Parnell Commission of 1889—on the 113th day of the hearing—Davitt used Rossa’s history as an example of … Read more