Nick Maxwell Tara needs no introduction to the readers of History Ireland. Its reputation as the most sacred ground in Ireland, and its symbolic capital, is undisputed. The Discovery Programme’s innovative research has not only yielded amazing results but has been the focus of international interest. Tara is traditionally central to the story of St Patrick’s conversion … Read more
This September (2004) teaching commences in the South on the long-awaited new Leaving Cert history syllabus. On the face of it this is a very impressive document running to almost 50 pages, the fruit of years of consultation between teachers, academics and the Department of Education and Science (DES). Particular emphasis has been placed on … Read more
Eire—It was a beautiful day in Dublin. Floating down the Liffey, neat little barges with red-topped funnels, loaded with brown barrels of Guinness stout, symbolised pre-war living and good appetites. Along the riverside the sunshine accentuated, rainbow-wise, the soft greens, blues, reds and yellows with which Dublin’s tall Georgian houses are painted. It was low … Read more
Niav Gallagher outlines how the Franciscans arrived in Ireland c. 1231 and enjoyed over a century of expansion and consolidation despite racial tensions. According to the thirteenth-century chronicler Thomas Eccleston, the first Franciscan friars to arrive in the British Isles landed at Dover on 10 September 1224. Within a few years houses of the order … Read more
BB: Tell us something about your background and about the people who influenced you most in your formative years. TPC: I grew up in impoverished middle-class surroundings in Monkstown, Co. Dublin. My father was a Sinn Féin activist with W.T. Cosgrave, Kevin O’Higgins and Michael Collins, setting up the local government and court system that … Read more