Nick Maxwell Sir, —Risteárd Mulcahy certainly has a point (HI 16.2, March/April 2008) when he states that the role of the IRA’s GHQ staff during the War of Independence has been somewhat ignored. Outside historical circles, who could even name the 13 members of the pre-treaty GHQ staff at the time of the truce in 1921? They … Read more
Playwright from Knockadangan, Co. Clare. She won a university scholarship and was awarded a BA (in Irish, French and English) and an MA in Irish in UCD. While there she was a member of Cumann na mBan and Conradh na Gaeilge. She was jailed at one point for selling republican flags on Grafton Street. She … Read more
Lord Spencer, a former lord lieutenant and avid huntsman, invited Elizabeth, wife of the Emperor Franz Josef, to Ireland. Being keen on hunting, she willingly accepted and it was arranged that she should stay in Summerhill House, home of Lord Longford, in Kilcock, Co. Meath. As this was a private visit she used her minor … Read more
Sir, —In the lead photo (p. 22) of Michael Doorley’s article on ‘The Friends of Irish Freedom’ (HI 16.1, Jan./Feb. 2008), the figure to Dev’s immediate left is in fact Dr Patrick McCartan (and not FOIF secretary Diarmuid Lynch, as captioned). I should know—he was my godfather. —Yours etc., MAIRTÍN McCULLOUGH Blackrock Co. Dublin
Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland) was a provincial German-speaking Baltic port and former member of the Hanseatic League that found itself plucked from obscurity immediately after the First World War. Elevated to the ambiguous status of a League-of-Nations-administered ‘free city’ and lying outside the borders of both Poland and Germany, the Free City of Danzig was, … Read more