Nick Maxwell Outrageous fortune: capital and culture in modern Ireland Joe Cleary (Field Day Publications, e42) ISBN 9780946755356 Books that are assembled by drawing together a set of essays previously published or delivered as seminar or lecture papers by the author often suffer from a lack of focus or any sense of overall theme. Such books … Read more
The launch of Turas na dTaoiseach nUltach as Éirinn: from Ráth Maoláin to Rome, edited by Nollaig Ó Muraíle (Pontifical Irish College, Rome, 690pp, €75 hb, ISBN 9788890169212), in Dublin Castle on 21 November 2007 by another taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, had uncanny parallels with the original episode, but in reverse. Copies of the book (printed … Read more
The first direct talks between the IRA and the Nazis began in 1937, when Tom Barry, the then chief-of-staff, travelled to Germany. The legendary leader of the Cork flying columns was accompanied on his travels by a German agent, Jupp Hoven. While posing as a TCD student, Hoven undertook spying work in Belfast, Dublin and … Read more
As the loyalist murals of Belfast’s Shankill Road and the jerseys worn by Tyrone’s Gaelic footballers show, claims to the Red Hand of Ulster have been contested for centuries. From the earliest times, personal emblems have been used to identify prominent people and their descendants. The lasting use of such symbols extended to civil purposes … Read more
Brigid, goddess and saint, the second most important Irish saint after Patrick, is well known not only in Ireland but also in many other parts of the world. Thousands of books and articles have been written about this influential figure since the first by Cogitosus c. AD 650. Yet some historians have claimed she did … Read more