Nick Maxwell Through Irish Eyes is distinct from O’Farrell’s earlier works in that it is not a conventional academic type history in the written sense, rather it is a collection of photographs, posters and cartoons whose intention it is to both at once celebrate and give some insight into an earlier culture of ‘Irishness’ in an adopted … Read more
Africa: a modern history Guy Arnold (Atlantic Books, £35 hb) ISBN 1843541750 The state of Africa Martin Meredith (The Free Press, £12.99 pb) ISBN 0743232216 Africa since independence Paul Nugent (Palgrave, ?27.70) ISBN 0333682734 Histories of the hanged David Anderson (Phoenix, £10.99 pb) ISBN 039332754X Britain’s gulag Caroline Elkins (Pimlico, £8.99 pb) ISBN 1844135489 Africa, … Read more
Natural History Museum (National Museum of Ireland) Merrion Street, Dublin 2 www.museum.ie Tues–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 2–5pm by Tony Canavan The Natural History Museum is something of a museum piece in itself, harking back to an era when there was a completely different attitude to wildlife and the environment. The internal architecture of the building is … Read more
Coleridge and Matthew Arnold defended the Church of England on the grounds that its clergy spread civilisation among their flocks. Canon P.A. Sheehan of Doneraile (1852-1913) hoped the Catholic clergy might perform the same role in Ireland. Since the early 1970s critics and social historians have used his novels and those of his less well-known … Read more
KEARNEY, Mother Kevin (1875–1957), missionary sister, was born on 28 April 1875 in Knockenrahan, Arklow, Co. Wicklow, the third and youngest daughter of Michael Kearney, farmer, and Teresa Kearney (née Grennell); she was baptised Mary Teresa. Her father died before her birth, and after her mother’s death in 1885 she was reared by her maternal … Read more