Nick Maxwell Students of the early modern period may be presented with a relatively straightforward history of Ireland’s sovereignty: the rapid military domination of a politically fragmented Gaelic polity by subjects of the king of England—beginning two decades or so after the pope’s grant of the island, by right of the so-called Donation of Constantine, to King … Read more
The 535ft-long, 15,000-ton Blue Star Line luxury liner was built in 1927 by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead. She was one of the best-known cruise liners of the 1930s, taking 354 first-class passengers in palatial style to destinations in the Mediterranean, the West Indies, the fjords of Norway and the Arctic Ocean. With her white hull … Read more
Established in 1939 by the Defence Forces to provide landward defence for a country with no naval service, the Coastwatching Service was an unarmed military force numbering approximately 700 and made up of army reservists and men with maritime experience who joined up after the outbreak of war. Manning 83 LOPs, one located every ten … Read more
John Koch suggests that Tartessian is ‘more than a little bit Celtic’ and adds a new twist to the assertion, long since dismissed as invention, that the Gaels (Milesians) originated in the Iberian Peninsula. The myth and mystery of Tartessos For Greek and Roman writers, Tartessos was a place of fabulous natural wealth in silver … Read more
On 6 August 1940 Garda William Cullen of Belmullet station received a phone call from coastwatchers at the nearby Annagh Head lookout post (LOP). He learned that the Atlantic currents had washed ashore the dead body of a British soldier. Cullen cycled to Annagh Head to investigate. With the coastwatchers he searched the body. Among … Read more