TV Eye

Troid Fhuilteach TG4, 16 January 2008 Fastnet Films by John Gibney Boxing’s profile has declined in Ireland. Although the occasional high-profile bout will attract attention (Hatton v. Mayweather last December, for example) or a new contender capture the imagination (Bernard Dunne—at least before he got battered last August), the sport no longer occupies the space … Read more

countdown to 2016:Liberty Hall: ‘the centre of social anarchy in Ireland’ by Joseph E.A. Connell Jr

Located at 18 Beresford Place at Eden Quay, the current headquarters of SIPTU stands on the site of the original Liberty Hall, which faced the Custom House, not the quays. In the early nineteenth century the building had been a chophouse. Later it was the site of the Northumberland Commercial and Family Hotel and the … Read more

Returning home: Irish ex-servicemen after the Second World War Bernard Kelly (Merrion, €17.99) ISBN 9781908928009

Returning home explores, without being sentimental or shrill, the post-war experiences in Ireland of the 130,000 Irish men and women from widely different backgrounds who joined the British military during World War II. Ireland was the only European neutral whose nationals voluntarily joined a belligerent power on a large scale. Other 1939 neutrals were either … Read more

Daniel O’Connell and the campaign against slavery

Three years before his death in 1847, Daniel O’Connell was celebrated in Martin Chuzzlewit, the novel of his favourite writer, Charles Dickens. The section of the book (see panel above) was based on a real-life account of a Delaware Repeal Association meeting, and confirmed O’Connell in his reputation as one of the great international champions of … Read more

Terror in Ireland 1916–1923 David Fitzpatrick (ed.) (Lilliput Press/Trinity History Workshop, €15) ISBN 9781843511991

The provocative title of this book immediately challenges readers to think about what they consider terror to be, and what defines a terrorist. This volume, the fifth to be produced by the Trinity History Workshop, sets out to examine the role of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary terror in Ireland between the 1916 Rising and the Civil … Read more