On display in the ‘Soldiers and Chiefs’ exhibition in the National Museum at Collins Barracks is a large table-cover, measuring 8ft by 4ft, called the Stokes Tapestry. This large pictorial work featuring 250 figures was made by Stephen Stokes between 1833 and 1853 and illustrates his experiences in the British Army in Ireland and subsequently … Read more
The Irish Prison Registers 1790–1924, held at the National Archives of Ireland, are one of the greatest untapped resources for tracing Irish ancestors. They contain over 130,000 pages which include nearly three million records of imprisonment providing a wealth of information on each prisoner, including name, address, place of birth, occupation, religion, education, age, physical … Read more
Fighting like the devil for the sake of God is an arresting title for a book that purports to examine the origins of violence in Northern Ireland by pinpointing the moment in time and the unique set of circumstances in the nineteenth century that have fathered the core violence experienced in the recent Troubles. When … Read more
The Tenements was an ambitious four-part series about Dublin’s notorious inner-city slums. Alongside the legacy of the Vikings and the impressive edifices of Georgian Dublin, the existence of the tenements is one of the best-known aspects of Dublin’s history, famously depicted in Seán O’Casey’s trilogy and James Plunkett’s Strumpet City. But this heritage was perhaps … Read more
George Wilkinson (1814–90) was the architect responsible for Irish workhouses. Born in Oxfordshire into a family of builder-architects, he was appointed by the Irish Poor Law commissioners to design and supervise an ambitious programme of workhouse construction. He arrived in Ireland, aged 24, in 1839/40. A report for the Poor Law commissioners in 1839 stated … Read more