Nick Maxwell By Fiona Fitzsimons Irish traditional music is both an oral tradition and an art form. It often, though not always, has no set composer and is rooted in a community of practice. It is dynamic and subject to change as artists interpret it, but also as the knowledge and skills are passed between generations of … Read more
By Bronagh Ann McShane ‘When Cromwell left [Ireland] … he put Ireton in charge of his soldiers. Ireton came to Galway in 1652 and demanded “surrender”. Galway yielded after many months. Then Ireton’s soldiers entered the city. It is believed that the soldiers came near a Poor Clare Convent, and they made the nuns flee … Read more
Bride Road, Dublin 8 By Damian Murphy In 1890 Edward Cecil Guinness (1847–1927), first Earl of Iveagh, established the Guinness Trust simultaneously in Dublin and London ‘for the amelioration of the condition of the poorer of the working classes’. Iveagh’s vision for Dublin was to provide new housing and associated educational and health-giving facilities to … Read more
By Dermot McGuinne When Queen Elizabeth II used five simple words in Irish, ‘A Uachtaráin agus a chairde’, in beginning her address at the banquet held in her honour at Dublin Castle on the occasion of her state visit to Ireland in 2011, the reaction was immediate and profound. Even President McAleese seemed surprised, although … Read more
By Mary Kenny Robert Ballagh’s vivid portrait of John Charles McQuaid, archbishop of Dublin from 1940 to 1972, contains both irony and allusive narrative. The subject appears in the full regalia of a cardinal, but the great disappointment of Dr McQuaid’s life was that he never got the red hat, probably stymied by negative lobbying … Read more