Sir Patrick Mayhew’s setting up of an independent review of parades and marches in northern Ireland, under the chairmanship of Dr Peter North, follows a pattern set in the last century. Orange marches through mainly Catholic areas invariably led to resentment and riot, sometimes to death and destruction, often followed by a government inquiry of … Read more
One May afternoon in 1868, a lanky adolescent in thick spectacles was hunched over some showy Chopin at a piano in Bray. As his fingers scattered notes profusely towards the Dargle, a three-year-old boy called Harry took advantage by secretly and expertly picking his pockets. Aside from the teenage pianist’s unusual virtuosity there was nothing … Read more
Toby Barnard (Yale University Press, 344.40) ISBN 0300096690 Irish Protestant ascents and descents, 1641–1770 Toby Barnard (Four Courts Press, 355) ISBN 1851826939 The preface of A new anatomy of Ireland mentions the works of other historians with the startling statement that ‘anyone keen to know what happened in Ireland between 1659 and 1800 should … Read more
FIELD, William (1843–1935), nationalist politician and businessman, was born in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, son of John Field, victualler, and Grace Field (née Byrne). He became politically active in the Amnesty Association that campaigned for the release of Fenian prisoners after the 1867 rising, and he is believed to have maintained contact with the IRB until … Read more
When Eoin O’Mahony died in February 1970 at the age of 65 The Times said that he was the outstanding Irish talker of his time and remarked that if he had had a Boswell he was the stuff of Johnson. Born in Cork on 22 March 1905, he was educated at Clongowes, where he acquired … Read more