From its inception the story of Irish canals was laden with tragedy. Men close to starvation laboured for a few pence a day to dig them, and barge masters sailed fully armed against a backdrop of simmering hostility. Guinness was the major customer of the Grand Canal Company (GCC). In the 1800s they undercut local … Read more
The institutional brutality, neglect and sexual abuse of children catalogued in the Murphy report, and its predessessors, Ryan and Ferns, concentrated on the later twentieth century. But did the Irish not already know of such behaviour in their midst? The truth, as is often the case, has been evident in the works of some of … Read more
During the last years of the nineteenth century Craughwell was one of the most violent corners of Ireland, and several murders were committed by members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) as part of its struggle against local landlords to create a better life for the poor small farmers and labourers of the region. Tom … Read more
Francis Hutchinson was no ordinary clergyman. Posterity chiefly remembers him for his condemnation of witchcraft trials in his famous book An historical essay concerning witchcraft . . . (1718). He was one of the first members of the Dublin Society for the Improvement of Husbandry and Other Useful Arts, however, and wrote extensively on social … Read more
Outrageous fortune: capital and culture in modern Ireland Joe Cleary (Field Day Publications, e42) ISBN 9780946755356 Books that are assembled by drawing together a set of essays previously published or delivered as seminar or lecture papers by the author often suffer from a lack of focus or any sense of overall theme. Such books … Read more