Nick Maxwell Few places suffered more severely from a combination of eviction and famine than Kilrush and its surrounding districts in the mid-nineteenth century. Only Skibbereen in south-west Cork and a few other parishes in the west of Ireland are likely to have experienced a comparable degree of human misery. But Kilrush has a further claim on … Read more
In mendicant orders—Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites and Augustinians—monastic life and outside religious activity are combined; neither personal nor community tenure of property are allowed under their original regulations. They shared the characteristics outlined above but were individually distinct owing to such factors as the founder’s … Read more
Our understanding of the Church in Ireland before the Tudor reformations has long been distorted by a paradigm that insisted that it was ‘in decline’. Historians conventionally trawled through the records of centuries to find instances of pluralism, absenteeism, concubinage, simony and other disorders, without putting that evidence into context or offering any assessment as … Read more
Robert Emmet’s interest in the use of sophisticated ordnance perplexed many United Irish contemporaries, not least Wexford hero Thomas Cloney, who deemed them a waste of resources. Cloney’s point was debatable, but they were not, however, bizarre affectations of a misguided fanatic. The manufacture of hinged pikes was a simple and inexpensive means of giving … Read more
Sir, —Thank you for the review of my book W.B. Yeats: Vain, Glorious, Lout. A Maker of Modern Ireland, by Derek Hand (HI 12.2, Summer 2004). If I might make a few points. I use the name ‘Willie’ for W.B. Yeats because that was how he was known by his family and friends. All … Read more