Nick Maxwell By Mark Stocker A long-overlooked aspect of the 1928 Irish Free State coinage was how the new, precarious, state could benefit from seigniorage. This denotes the profit made by a government issuing currency through the difference between its face value and lower production costs. Only higher-value silver coins (half-crown, florin and shilling) mattered here. W.T. … Read more
By Billy Shortall Although invited, the Irish Free State refused to participate in the British Empire Exhibition, which took place between April and October 1924. It also declined to participate when the exhibition was extended for a second season in 1925. Why not? The event took place on a 220-acre site at Wembley, London. It … Read more
By Robin Fuller One hundred years ago it was quite common for Irish people to believe that they were living in times foretold by St Malachy, the twelfth-century archbishop of Armagh. Malachy purportedly predicted that, after 700 years under the yoke of her foe, Ireland’s ‘light shall burst forth as the sun’: ‘The Church of … Read more
By Eoin Magennis and Lesa Ní Mhunghaile Nano Aiken’s 1934 application for a military service pension named two unlikely referees for the 1923 period of service. One was Monsignor Eugene O’Callaghan, chaplain to Armagh Gaol and later bishop of Clogher. The other was Sir Dawson Bates, minister for Home Affairs in the Northern Ireland government. … Read more
By Liam Kennedy Generations of Irish Catholic parents rushed to have their infants baptised as soon as possible after birth. In this they were different from Presbyterian and Church of Ireland families, who might wait for weeks and sometimes months before arranging the baptismal ceremony. By the later twentieth century, however, many Catholic parents were … Read more