Nick Maxwell – Page 537 – History Ireland

‘Love/hate’— the Haughey/Thatcher relationship and the Anglo-Irish summit, 8 December 1980

RTÉ’s new primetime drama Charlie, which charts the life and times of arguably Ireland’s most notorious—not to mention corrupt—politician, Charles J. Haughey, has rekindled the public’s fascination with the Irish political landscape of the 1980s The 1980s will forever be remembered for their prolonged economic recession, mass unemployment, institutionalised emigration and the ongoing Troubles in … Read more

Their respective positions on Northern Ireland

On coming to power Thatcher knew very little about Ireland, North or South. Prior to becoming prime minister she had visited Ireland only a handful of times and had failed to strike up a relationship with the leaders in either Belfast or Dublin. In private, she had once conceded that ‘If the Irish want to … Read more

Roches Stores, Patrick’s Street, Cork

The deliberate burning of nearly five acres of Cork by Auxiliaries on the night of 11–12 December 1920 left a trail of debris and ruin in the city. Patrick’s Street traders sought, and successfully accessed, compensation for their losses. Chief amongst the traders was William Roche (d. 1939), who had developed his business from a … Read more

Communism in the IHA

The Irish Housewives Association had dealt with some serious political accusations in the early ’50s. Though founded as a political pressure group to represent the needs of married Irish women, on 12 April 1952 the Roscommon Herald suggested that the IHA had ‘always been used as a medium of expression by Marxists and Communists’. Though … Read more