Nick Maxwell On that Tuesday morning, 22 August, the convoy lined up outside Cork’s Imperial Hotel’s military quarters as Michael Collins began his last journey. Emmet Dalton, National Army military operations director, saluted and spoke briefly to him before both mounted the Leyland vehicle. Collins jotted in his notebook: ‘Left at 6.15am—Macroom, Bandon, Clonakilty, Rosscarbery, Skibbereen’. As … Read more
In 1210 King John ordered that English Common Law was henceforth to be the law of the Norman lordship of Ireland. The Common Law was a centralised system of justice with civil and criminal divisions, and trial by jury. The Irish, who were deemed ‘rebels’, used the Brehon Law instead until the seventeenth century. Under … Read more
The basic fare was two properly baked loaves of bread daily. Other foods were prescribed at different times of year but varied according to the rank of the injured person. Nobles were to have salt-meat daily from New Year’s Eve to the beginning of Lent, garden herbs only during Lent, salt-meat twice a week from … Read more
Under EPO 362, 4,634 Irish soldiers who had been absent from their posts for more than 180 days were summarily dismissed from the Irish Defence Forces for desertion. Servicemen who on 8 August were absent for less than 180 days and were not captured were dismissed automatically as soon as they passed the 180-day threshold. … Read more
Apart from increasing military wages, there was little that the Irish government could do to address the main problem facing Irish servicemen: boredom. After the initial surge of recruitment in mid-1940, when Defence Force numbers peaked at around 40,000 men, life in the Irish forces quickly became routine. As the threat of invasion receded after … Read more