Nick Maxwell Academics these days are encouraged to venture outside their limited ‘knowledge community’ (‘the ivory tower’) and engage more with the general public, presenting research findings to wider audiences, increasing participation and promoting ‘lifelong learning’. They must also attract outside funding for their universities to finance networks of the type discussed here, but funding is increasingly … Read more
Number Twenty-Nine: Dublin’s Georgian House Museum 29 Fitzwilliam Street Lower, Dublin 2 +353 (0)1 702 6165, numbertwentynine@esb.ie, www.esb.ie/no29 Tues.–Sat. 10am–5pm, Sun. 1pm–5pm, €5/€2.50, u16 free. Closed Mondays and two weeks at Christmas by Tony Canavan Number Twenty-Nine is situated in a historic area of Dublin that not only reflects the Georgian glory of the past … Read more
History as fairytale? Elizabeth: the Golden Age Director: Shekhar Kapur by Hiram Morgan Director: Zack Synder by Ciarán Brady This film is great fun but it is not history. It is an Anglo-Protestant present-centred interpretation of history wrapped up in Hollywood glamour, Harry Potter fantasy and Monty Python caricature. It is a sequel to the … Read more
Sir,—I read with delight the article ‘Viking Cork’ by Henry A. Jefferies (HI 18.6, Nov./Dec. 2010) and note with interest his quotation, attributed to Deborah Sutton, that ‘We think the people here ate hake and pike . . .’. It seems that excavations of Viking Cork carried out by Deborah and Máire Ní Loingsigh revealed … Read more
Sir,—Re Fergus Whelan’s claim that Irish republicanism is ‘not indigenous’ (HI 18.6, Nov./Dec. 2010). By the same token, Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism and Islam are all imports. In fact, the only truly indigenous faith is paganism.—Yours etc., JAMES G. KEEHAN Gort