Nick Maxwell In one of our podcasts analysing the 2020 general election (link below), historian Brian Hanley was emphatic that the Sinn Féin surge in that election represented a seismic shift in the political landscape. Despite a drop in Sinn Féin’s vote, that remains the case: the two historically dominant political parties have been replaced by three. … Read more
By Michael Flavin On Thursday 21 November 1974, a small IRA unit in Birmingham, acting without authorisation, planted bombs in two city-centre pubs, the Tavern in the Town in New Street and the Mulberry Bush in the Bull Ring. The Mulberry Bush was at the base of the Rotunda tower, a well-known Birmingham landmark, while … Read more
By David Burke Previously in History Ireland (HI 26.3, May/June 2018) Margaret Urwin and Niall Meehan re-examined the case of Patrick Crinnion, a senior Garda intelligence officer who, for over a decade, betrayed Garda security secrets to Britain’s MI6. The article provided convincing evidence that a man called Alex Forsey was part of a network … Read more
By Fergal Lenehan Diplomatic relations between Ireland and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) began formally only in 1980. Prior to that, a relatively small number of Irish people visited the GDR, while the Belfast-born illustrator and children’s author Elizabeth Shaw would appear to have been the sole person born on the island of Ireland who … Read more
By Felix Larkin Dublin Opinion, the self-styled ‘national humorous journal of Ireland’, was published monthly between 1922 and 1968. It was a miscellany of quips, short articles, poems and cartoons—all in a humorous vein, but with serious intent. The journal, without sacrificing its humour, always had the capacity to convey a serious message—and the message … Read more