Nick Maxwell To entice English people, especially merchants, to move to their lands, the earliest conquerors and settlers created boroughs. These boroughs—and the five royal cities of Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick—were granted privileges, confirmed by charter, which allowed them semi-autonomous government and freedom from tolls. Among the lists of burgesses and citizens (the name for … Read more
Sir,—I may be your only subscriber in Norway, but I enjoy every issue of History Ireland. As a mathematician, I particularly enjoyed the article about Hamilton (HI 23.5, Sept./Oct. 2016). I have a comment about the cover, however. The men on the cover are not Black and Tans, they are Auxiliary Cadets! The Auxies, and … Read more
Sir,—May I be allowed to offer a gentle rebuke to Joseph E.A. Connell (Countdown to 2016) and the many other historians who promote the view that the 1916 Rising was confined to Dublin? Despite the conflicting orders, the Volunteers in County Wexford assembled on Wednesday 27 April, having confirmed that parts of Dublin had already … Read more
Sir,—The review (HI 23.5, Sept./Oct. 2015) of the recent posthumous publication of The genesis of National Socialism by T. Desmond Williams, when recounting Williams’s career, states that ‘he co-wrote an introduction to a book on the Irish Famine’. Williams and his colleague R. Dudley Edwards were indeed the editors of The Great Famine. Studies in … Read more
Sir,—In your last issue (HI 23.5, Sept./Oct. 2015, Sidelines) Tony Canavan states that ‘Henry VIII was a fat, adulterous heretic’. Is this an example of Mock Tudor?—Yours etc., NOEL YOUNG