Nick Maxwell It certainly was not economically advantageous for MacNally to inform. The pension he received from the government was obviously so meagre that it forced his family into penury after he died and led to the eventual disclosure of his role as informer. With the broad legal experience that he had and the two legal textbooks … Read more
MacNally was a barrister, playwright, United Irishman and notorious informer who was born in Dublin in 1752. His father was a grocer and MacNally also briefly worked as a grocer in St Mary’s Lane off Capel Street. In 1774 he went to London and on 8 June he entered the Middle Temple to study law. … Read more
The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland was a private institution. The Catholic clergy had pastoral duties towards their community but no civil responsibility. From the late eighteenth century, Catholic religious orders involved themselves more in education and welfare, founding specifically Catholic schools and institutions (reformatories, industrial schools, orphanages, asylums and refuges). The basic administrative unit … Read more
Richard Boyle was one of the most significant and controversial characters in early modern Ireland. An archetypal English adventurer, by his own account he was variously an earnest royal official who rose through the ranks to reach the very top of government through sheer ability; a successful entrepreneur and industrialist; a great landowner, having acquired … Read more
The vast riches of Boyle’s archive are being showcased through the Irish Research Council-funded ‘Digital Boyle’ project (2014) at UCC. This will present images of key documents from the earl’s papers in an interactive display to be exhibited in the coming months at suitable locations. Manuscript images will be placed alongside transcriptions of texts, including … Read more