Nick Maxwell Sir,—John Gibney (Seen on TV, HI 23.4, July/Aug. 2015) commented on the ability of relatives of those who died in Gallipoli to ‘[have] respect for both those who fought in the war and those who fought in the Easter Rising’. Like others, Dr Gibney has taken the simplistic approach that the only way to remember … Read more
Sir,—The articles relating to O’Donovan Rossa (HI 23.4, July/Aug. 2015) barely mentioned his second marriage to Ellen Buckley. She was the eighteen-year-old daughter of Cornelius Buckley, a Skibbereen businessman. Ellen met O’Donovan Rossa and they became friendly. However, her father disapproved of a man he saw as a ‘Fenian, revolutionary, and widower with four dependent … Read more
Sir,—Having read ‘The Irish at Gallipoli’ by Jeff Kildea in your fine magazine (HI 23.4, July/Aug. 2015), I was intrigued by his omissions and, if you will pardon the description, his sleight of pen. In tone it was reminiscent of G.A. Henty, who long ago eulogised the ‘derring do of young Englanders’ as they helped … Read more
In March 2012 the Stormont Executive announced that it would bring forward a programme for the Decade of Commemorations. It said that it was appropriate and necessary for the Executive to set the tone and provide leadership ‘in putting an official acknowledgement process in place’. The convoluted final phrase may help explain why, three years … Read more
A newly digitalised collection of 50-odd interviews with Ulster veterans of the Irish Volunteers and pre-Truce IRA, carried out by Fr Louis O’Kane some 50 years later, provides the inspiration for a one-day conference in Armagh in November 2015—‘Reflections on the Revolution in Ulster: the Irish Volunteer movement in the North, 1913–23’. Northern participants’ reluctance … Read more