Thady McMahon, Eugene O’Curry and singing beggars in mid-nineteenth-century Dublin. By Ciarán McCabe In November 1852 a 60-year-old blind beggar named Thady McMahon was arrested and detained in Dublin city for ‘being a wandering vagrant’. With three or four previous convictions ‘for vagrancy’, McMahon was sentenced before the magistrates at the Capel Street Police Office … Read more
By Siobhán Ryan In 1813 the Sligo Grand Jury appointed three commissioners to supervise the provision of a new county gaol. A site comprising almost seven acres in Abbeyquarter North, on the eastern fringes of Sligo town, was selected for a complex intended to hold up to 160 inmates. The estimated cost of the gaol … Read more
By Stephen Callaghan The Second Boer War broke out in October 1899. It was a conflict for which the British were under-prepared, with towns like Kimberly, Ladysmith and Mafeking being besieged by the Boers at the outset. The following year saw several hundred thousand British and Commonwealth reinforcements on their way to South Africa. Prior … Read more
Friendly societies played a vital role in mitigating the worst material consequences of illness and hardship. By Joe Fodey The Irish National Foresters (INF) was probably the most famous and influential of the many friendly societies operating in Ireland during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In its heyday it had branches throughout Ireland and … Read more
A great discovery that has been plagued by controversy for two centuries. By Michael Smith The dark scudding clouds and misty haze parted briefly in the late afternoon to reveal the wondrous sight of an icy landscape never seen by human eyes before that moment. It was 30 January 1820 and Edward Bransfield, an accomplished … Read more