Nick Maxwell Is Ireland traditionally associated with a particular mode of transport? Britain, after all, will always be associated with the seafaring prowess that laid the military and economic foundations for global dominance, and the very existence (not to mention influence) of the United States in its current form is inextricable from the development of the automobile. … Read more
Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President Kennedy, narrowly escaped being, like Lord Frederick Cavendish, an unintended victim of Irish terrorism. In 1975 there was an unsuccessful attempt by the IRA on the life of the Conservative MP Sir Hugh Fraser—then still married to the historian Lady Antonia Fraser—and the car bomb that was intended to kill … Read more
Spencer Percival is the only British prime minister to have been assassinated. In contrast, four US presidents have been assassinated—Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy—and thirteen others were the intended victims of credible assassins, though Ronald Reagan was the only serving US president actually to have been injured in an unsuccessful assassination attempt. Lord Frederick Cavendish’s … Read more
As early as May 1975 the Irish Times noted that ‘many people seem to have forgotten that the bombings ever took place’. Over the years other atrocities, such as Bloody Sunday, Bloody Friday, Enniskillen and Omagh, have loomed far larger in the public imagination. Bombings carried out by the IRA, such as at Warrington in … Read more
Robert Owen’s visit to Ireland represented an important effort to attract government support for his ‘Village Scheme’ (see sidebar). A select committee would soon meet to investigate the prevailing distress, and Owen, hoping he might give evidence, as he had on child labour, set about familiarising himself with Ireland. From October 1822 to April 1823 … Read more