Granite as a building material in Dublin in the early eighteenth century

In 1772 John Rutty, in his ‘Essay towards a natural history of the county of Dublin . . .’, stated that granite ‘within these thirty years, is introduced and greatly used and esteemed in our buildings in the city of Dublin . . . insomuch as to have in some measure supplanted the use of … Read more

Tracing the Irish in the American Civil War

Earlier this year I wrote about Irish involvement in the First World War and how, although the numbers of Irish involved are still contested, official estimates currently stand at 210,000 mobilised and 49,300 dead. There is another war in which Irish soldiers fought and died in similar numbers but which is forgotten by official Ireland: … Read more

Peter Lacy, ‘the Prince Eugene of Muscovy

Peter Edmund Lacy/Pyotr Petrovich Lasci (1678–1751) of Killeedy, Co. Limerick, was the son of Pierce Edmund de Lacy of Ballingarry and his wife Maria (née Courtney). He joined the regiment of his uncle, Colonel John Lacy, as an ensign in the Prince of Wales’ Regiment of Irish Foot at the beginning of the Jacobite/Williamite War … Read more

The Torture Files

Sir,—As a footnote to John Gibney’s excellent review of RTÉ’s The Torture Files (HI 22.5, Sept./Oct. 2014), may I remind your readers that a great Englishman raised his voice vigorously denouncing the so-called ‘clean torture’ practised in Northern Ireland after the introduction of internment. It was none other than Graham Greene who poured scorn on … Read more