The Friar’s Bush cemetery on Stranmillis Road, Belfast, may only be two acres in size, but its history is far grislier than you might expect—plague, body-snatching, famine and murder are all part of its story. The gates have been closed since 1869 and only family members can get in—to be buried—but aside from the graves … Read more
The Dead Sea, whose surface is today about 417m below sea level, is not only the lowest place on the surface of the planet but also one of the most inhospitable. Its water is poisonous to drink, it is excessively hot for many months of the year, it is surrounded by steep and barren mountains, … Read more
The Irish College in Rome was founded in 1628 by the committed and resourceful team of Franciscan Luke Wadding and the cardinal protector of Ireland, the Jesuit Ludovico Ludovisi. It went through a series of administrations, but after a period of closure during the French occupation of Rome and its aftermath (late eighteenth/early nineteenth century) … Read more
Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886) was the most influential historian of the nineteenth century. He made important contributions to the emergence of modern history as a discipline and he has been called the father of ‘scientific’ history. Thanks to him, methodical principles of archival research and source criticism became commonplace in academic institutions, and he is … Read more
On 7 October 1843 the lord lieutenant of Ireland issued a proclamation banning the ‘monster meeting’ scheduled for the following day at Clontarf, in the northern suburbs of Dublin. Some 2,500 troops, nearly 1,000 constabulary and four field guns were deployed to enforce the order. With only hours to spare, the organisers of the demonstration, … Read more