The history of Irish sport is a neglected realm. There is no general history of sport in Ireland, and reliable histories of individual sports are few and far between. Yet sport contributes a significant strand to modern Irish identity. The annual Irish invasion of Cheltenham for Gold Cup week, the friendly fervour of Ireland’s soccer … Read more
In Ireland as a prelude to a nationwide valuation of land and buildings, the so-called Griffith’s Valuation, the Ordnance Survey was directed to map the whole country at a scale of six inches to one mile. It was originally intended to accompany each map with written topographical descriptions for every civil (Church of Ireland) parish. … Read more
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term ‘miasma’ as ‘infectious or noxious exhalations from putrescent organic matter; poisonous particles or germs floating in and polluting the atmosphere’. Before the later nineteenth-century scientific discoveries of Pasteur, Lister and Koch established the germ origin of infection, many medical practitioners believed that the environment was responsible for the … Read more
Sir, —I am researching the history of St Patrick’s Benevolent RegisteredAssociation, which was based in Henry Street, Kilrush, Co. Clare, inthe late 1800s. According to Bassett’s Directory, 1880–1, its officersat that time were: president, John O’Brien; vice-president, P.J. Boyle,proprietor of the Kilrush Gazette, who lived at 58 John Street;secretary, John R. MacNamara, who may have … Read more
The forthcoming beatification of Edmund Rice will inevitably focus attention on his life and deeds. Yet, the absence of a diary, memoirs or a contemporary biographer restrict our image of the man’s personality to mere glimpses. Above all, his modesty and reticence make him an elusive subject for a biographer. His contemporaries, for instance, appear … Read more