Nick Maxwell In introducing this special issue Brian Hanley touches on some of the complexities and contradictions of that fateful year. The events in the North in 1969 transformed Ireland; it could be argued that the violence of that August continues to shape this country to the present day. Yet in comparison to ’68, commemorated last year … Read more
Ballymena was also the site of some of the most lavish displays of unionist street-theatre during the Home Rule crisis. The most striking example occurred on the occasion of a visit in July 1913 by Sir Edward Carson. Sir Arthur O’Neill MP had been a soldier in the Life Guards cavalry regiment, whose job it … Read more
A collection of George Young’s UVF correspondence has recently emerged, allowing us to trace the story of the mid-Antrim Ulster Volunteers and affording great insight into the way provincial leaders of unionism thought and acted, as they contemplated a devolved Dublin parliament and the loss of liberty and prosperity that they believed would ensue. These … Read more
Gaelic gangsters Mobs Mheiricea TG4, October–November 2007 ABÚ Media by John Gibney The gangster is one of the iconic American characters of the twentieth century. In the movies that made him prominent, he usually lives in New York or Chicago, and more often than not he can speak Italian. For despite the occasional appearance in … Read more
Such well-narrated historical processes as the Roman, French and Russian revolutions allow us to identify the common traits of a revolution as distinct from a coup d’état or similar change of regime. I believe that the Irish Revolution had all these traits but that this has so far not been recognised by historians, with the … Read more