Nick Maxwell A garrulous, lightning-witted, talent-squandering, hard-drinking ‘character’, Brendan Behan embodied a certain Anglo-American stereotype of an ‘Irish writer’ to the hilt. Dead at the age of 41, his drinking was, as his one-time friend Anthony Cronin would say, no laughing matter, and yet it is sometimes hard not to laugh. From 1956 onwards, when Joan Littlewood’s … Read more
Alvin Jackson (ed.), The Oxford handbook of modern Irish history (Oxford University Press, £95 hb, 800pp, ISBN9780199549344) Maynooth Studies in Local History (Four Courts Press, ?9.95 pb) John R. Thullier, Kinsale Harbour: a history (Collins Press, ?19.99 hb, 280pp, ISBN 9781848892064) Aidan O’Hara, Atlantic Gaels: links between Donegal and the Hebrides (The Islands Book Trust, … Read more
The flag known as the Starry Plough was created as the visible manifestation of the hopes and aspirations of the Dublin workingman. It is the flag of the Irish Citizen Army (ICA), which was founded in 1913 by James Larkin in response to police brutality during the Lockout. It was carried into the GPO in … Read more
Powerscourt House, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow www.taraspalace.ie By Denis Casey Formerly situated at Malahide Castle and now located in three of the upper rooms of Powerscourt House, Enniskerry, Tara’s Palace and Museum of Childhood is a small attraction dedicated to both children and adults that houses a 25-room miniature doll’s palace and a collection of toys … Read more
The Starry Plough flag has been in the possession of the National Museum (NMI) since 1956 and has recently been conserved in commemoration of the centenaries of the foundation of the Labour Party (1912), the Dublin Lockout (1913) and the Easter Rising (1916). Funding was provided by individual contributions from members of the Labour Party. … Read more