Nick Maxwell The ultimate responsibility for failure to cope effectively with the disaster of the Famine lay with the Westminster parliament, but we should remember that Ireland in 1847 returned 105 MPs to Westminster. A unified effort by all these MPs could have changed government policies. No such agreed approach emerged and there was a serious failure … Read more
On 24 June 1828, as the schooner Mary Stubbs and the brig Mary Russell approached Cork Harbour, a man suddenly jumped overboard from the Mary Stubbs and swam towards nearby ships, one of which rescued him. A slight, red-haired individual, the swimmer said that he was Captain William Stewart, in fear for his life. Distrusting … Read more
‘These are the times that try men’s souls’, George Washington declared to his troops as they gathered in darkness on the banks of the Delaware River before the crucial American victory at the Battle of Trenton (1776) in the Revolutionary War. Washington was quoting the opening lines from the first of Thomas Paine’s great pamphlet … Read more
Across 1 Synod in 664 that decreed that the kingdom of Northumbria would follow Roman rather than Celtic ecclesiastical traditions (6). 5 ——— Thomas was executed along with his five uncles at Tyburn in 1537 (6). 10 ———- Hall, New York City political organisation founded in 1786 (7). 11 The ———- Pacts of 1929, signed … Read more
Hannah and Francis Sheehy-Skeffington and Margaret Cousins founded the radical Irish Women’s Franchise League (IWFL) in 1908; Hanna was elected chairwoman and Meg Connery served as vice-chairwoman. The IWFL was the most outspoken and public manifestation of women’s discontent and radical feminism in Ireland. Its primary aim was to secure women’s suffrage within Home Rule. … Read more