Nick Maxwell In 1707 the Registry of Deeds was established by act of the Irish parliament, to secure the transfer of land after the Williamite conquest. The Registry’s intended main function was to provide security of tenure for new owners of land in Ireland. The registration or ‘memorialising’ of deeds was on an entirely voluntary basis. Registered … Read more
The map of the siege of Castle Maine was probably drawn shortly after the victory of Munster president Sir John Perrot in August 1572, since it was entered into the state papers in December of that year. The map acknowledges the attacking crown force through a depiction of their camps, their ordnance, their journey across … Read more
The siege of Castle Maine came after nearly fifteen years of conflict between the Desmond Geraldines and the crown, a conflict that fostered increased contact between Irish, Old English and New English peoples in Munster. As all sixteenth-century cartographic activity in Ireland was undertaken by crown officials, the map of the siege of Castle Maine … Read more
Sir,—Readers of my Massacre in West Cork (reviewed in HI 22.3, May/June 2014) might be interested in a very important Freedom of Information Tribunal which will take place in London on 17 June 2015. In 2013, while I was researching Massacre in West Cork, I requested a file in the National Archives in London identifying … Read more
Sir,—The suggestion of a joint remembrance of the 1916 Rising and the Battle of the Somme would definitely be inappropriate, if not divisive. Gerry McAllister’s statement in his letter (HI 23.2, March/April 2015) that the Battle of the Somme was fought as part of an imperial war may be correct, but it is still being … Read more