Nick Maxwell During World War I most Indians (like the Irish) supported Britain’s war effort on the assumption that some form of self-government would be granted at the end of hostilities. Instead, in March 1919 they got the Rowlatt Act, which gave the British Indian government draconian powers, including that of internment. In response, Mohandas Gandhi began … Read more
On his third visit to Britain, in 1912, Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore met with a variety of literary figures, such as Ezra Pound and Thomas Sturge Moore. None would prove as beneficial as his meeting with W.B. Yeats on 7 July 1912. Tagore had initially shown his poems to the English painter William Rothenstein. Overwhelmed … Read more
One of Ireland’s most important parliaments was held in Dublin in 1541. This declared Henry VIII to be ‘king of Ireland’ and made all Irishmen, whatever their origin, Gaelic or Norman, his subjects with equal rights under common law. It enacted the ‘surrender and regrant’ legislation and, while English was the official language, much of … Read more
The Swilly estuary’s physical dynamic, coupled with its terrain characteristics and tidal water, creates a formidable tactical and strategic obstacle. This would be an important but underestimated element of O’Donnell’s victory. On entering O’Donnell’s territory, O’Neill had to cross this imposing physical barrier. Once across, his advancing army encountered steep hills to its front and … Read more
In 1969 a 26-year-old Belfast boy with a distinguished undergraduate record applied for a lectureship at the University of Durham. Robin Frame was then at work on his doctoral dissertation in Trinity College, Dublin, and had one published article to his name. That might have been one article too many for H.S. Offler, then professor … Read more