Politics and the Irish working class, 1830–1945 Fintan Lane and Donal Ó Drisceoil (eds) (Palgrave Macmillan, £55) ISBN 1 40393179 The editors of this volume lay out their stall at the outset by attributing the failure of labour in politics to the traditional ‘three evil geniuses of socialism: the priest, peasant and patriot’. The wide-ranging … Read more
In the aftermath of the 1803 rebellion Robert Emmet frankly admitted that ‘To change the day was impossible for I expected the counties to act, and feared to lose the advantage of surprise’. The participation of rebels from County Kildare was central to Emmet’s strategy. The county’s proximity to Dublin and the high-profile involvement of … Read more
Mrs Mary Delany once wrote: ‘Got up at nine, and read a lecture to my family on the advantages of rising early! For want of the usual bell that used to call them up they are later and later’ (15 January 1770). Mrs Delany’s own accounts show that her household in Delville, outside Glasnevin in … Read more
Sir,—I take exception to the gratuitously insulting cartoon by ‘doll’on page nine of the autumn 1996 issue of History Ireland. The cartoondepicts a figure pushing over a pedestal on which is inscribed ‘NaBráithre Críostaí Irish Christian Brothers, 1820-’. The figure issaying ‘Corporal punishment was bad enough, but Gaelic corporalpunishment…’ Now, as a person with a … Read more
BELL, Laura Eliza Jane Seymour (1829?–1894), was the daughter of Robert Bell of Bellbrook, near Glenavy, Co. Antrim, a bailiff for the Hertford estate. In later life she claimed to be a granddaughter of Francis Seymour, 3rd marquess of Hertford, and also that her mother had been rescued from a Spanish convent. She worked in … Read more