Nick Maxwell Many of the National Library’s most valuable collections pertaining to the Irish struggle for independence were catalogued in the 1930s and ’40s, when the institution’s expertise and resources were at a premium. As a consequence (as many readers may have discovered), the catalogue descriptions of some material pertaining to seminal revolutionaries, including Patrick Pearse, Bulmer … Read more
Ireland’s connection to rubber is not at first obvious. In the popular imagination of recent decades it is bound up with somewhat negative readings to do with the ban imposed by the Catholic Church on the sale of rubber prophylactics. More sinister was the deployment by the British army of rubber bullets during the troubles … Read more
During the 1920s the newly formed Irish Defence Forces began looking for a steel helmet. At first the French Adrian model, named after its inventor, August-Louis Adrian, was tested on a limited scale but was found to be unsatisfactory. Eventually it was decided to choose the German helmet used in the First World War, and … Read more
Sir Peter Tait was born in Scotland in 1828 but moved to Limerick at a young age. At the age of sixteen he became a shop assistant in the Cumine and Mitchell department store but lost his job when trade slackened, forcing him to display the first signs of his entrepreneurial ability. He purchased a … Read more
Every year, on the eve of 12 July, volcano-like pyres of car, truck and tractor tyres, wooden palettes and other combustible materials are ignited in neighbourhoods across Northern Ireland. For those who gather beside these infernos the symbolism of burning tyres is obscure. As the thick acrid smoke swirls into the summer night, stories are … Read more