Earliest Theobald Wolfe Tone manuscripts (1783) recently discovered. By Sylvie Kleinman When Theobald Wolfe Tone’s son William published his father’s papers as the Life in 1826, he admitted suppressing ‘the account of some early amours’ and evidence of youthful wildness. Indeed, Tone himself had recorded in his brief autobiographical ‘Memorandums’ behaviour both reckless and risky. … Read more
The real history of Irish slavery on Barbados highlights how much worse slavery was for Africans in the Americas, reminding us that the curse of Cromwell has haunted more than just Irish history. By John Donoghue History and nationalism have long been locked in a troubled relationship. While nationalists base their appeals on history, their … Read more
A newly discovered manuscript throws a vivid, uncensored and revealing light on an Ulster Presbyterian community and an otherwise obscure eighteenth-century cultural world. By Andrew Carpenter Although several women living in the southern provinces of eighteenth-century Ireland published poetry in English, remarkably little of the verse written by women from Ulster during this period has … Read more
The first balloon crossing of the Irish Sea in July 1817. By Mark Davies ‘I am just come from the clouds; I should now wish to visit the deep.’ This was the bravado request of twenty-year-old Windham Sadler, only hours after becoming the first man ever to make an aerial crossing of the Irish Sea, … Read more
Bushe, Connell and an eighteenth-century Irish population controversy. By David Parker Gervase Parker Bushe was a taxman. It was his job to ensure that you paid your dues to the Board of Revenue, and that, even if you were ‘on the parish’ and entitled to tax-free status, you—or rather your dwelling, the basis of the … Read more