Nick Maxwell Report to the First Consul [Buonaparte], 16 nivôse 9 [18 January 1801] Two Irishmen called on me and submitted a memorial which they wish to present to the First Consul on behalf of the United Irishmen, having been appointed by their executive in Ireland and sent to France with the express mission of requesting, for … Read more
During Ireland’s ‘golden years’ at the United Nations in the late 1950s Dublin firmly supported decolonisation and the newly independent African states then joining the UN. Ireland prided itself upon never having sought to dominate another people for colonial greed. Yet a May 1938 letter from Joseph Walshe, contained in the recently published fifth volume … Read more
Robert Emmet entered Trinity College, Dublin, aged fifteen, in October 1793. One of the first books he read that year was John Locke’s Two treatises of government, a 1728 (‘5th’) edition, published by A. Betterworth, J. Pemberton and E. Symon of London. This copy was later bequeathed to Thomas Addis Emmet, Robert’s grandnephew, and the … Read more
In an era of unprecedented public interest and pride in Ireland’s Jewish heritage, it is sad to report the avoidable destruction of one of its outstanding monuments. The demolition, in October 2006, of a barn near Millisle on the Ards Peninsula has removed from the landscape Northern Ireland’s most significant Holocaust memorial. During its construction … Read more
Robert Emmet was arrested on 25 August 1803 by Dublin’s chief of police, Town Major Henry Charles Sirr. From the time of his appointment as assistant town major in 1796 until his retirement to the police magistrates’ bench in 1808, Sirr created an era of surveillance, pursuit, detection and arrest that is probably unparalleled since … Read more