Nick Maxwell Civilizing Ireland. Ordnance Survey 1824–42: ethnography, cartography, translation Stiofán Ó Cadhla (Irish Academic Press, hb e47.50, pb e20) ISBN 9780716533726, 9780716528814 This book seeks to examine cultural and ethnographic aspects of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, established in 1824. The project sought to map Ireland, to standardise its placenames and to record its physical and … Read more
were a standard feature of late nineteenth-century Irish nationalism and were generally presented by voluntary subscription in recognition of outstanding achievement. The National Library of Ireland is the custodian of a large collection of such addresses, one of the most remarkable of which is the ‘Illuminated Address to Charles Stewart Parnell from the Tenant Farmers … Read more
Compared to the carnage of the previous year (221 civilians murdered), 1977 was relatively quiet in Northern Ireland (55 civilians murdered). May witnessed the failure of the second loyalist workers’ strike, led by Ian Paisley and faced down by the brusque secretary of state, Roy Mason. Peace People Betty Williams and Mairéad Corrigan won the … Read more
Spies, informers and the ‘Anti-Sinn Féin Society’: the intelligence war in Cork City, 1920–1921 John Borgonovo (Irish Academic Press, e30) ISBN 0716528339 ‘Intelligence’ is perhaps the trickiest aspect of the Irish revolution to write about in a scholarly way. Sources are often fragmentary and unreliable, mythologies are ample and enduring, and many events only make … Read more
In May 1933 some visiting dignitaries from Scotland were being given a tour of Stormont as guests of John W. Nixon, an Independent Unionist MP. Without warning, the leader of the delegation, Charles Forster, a Scottish Protestant League member and Glasgow city councillor, threw red paint at a large painting, while his colleague Mary Ratcliffe … Read more