In the last quarter of the nineteenth century British governments displayed renewed interest in imperial expansion, in what was later dubbed ‘new imperialism’. Between 1870 and 1900 around 66 million people and 4.5 million square miles were added to Britain’s overseas possessions in a process presented to schoolchildren as painting the map of the world … Read more
The 1790s have emerged, over the past fifteen years or so, as the focus of some of the most vigorous and challenging writing currently forthcoming from Irish historians. In that explosion of debate and reinterpretation, Kevin Whelan is recognised as a central figure. The appearance of The Tree of Liberty will thus attract wide and … Read more
Little did the Russians realise when they sold Alaska to the United States in 1867 for $7.2 million that it would become one of history’s greatest bargains. Even many Americans were doubtful about its worth and ridiculed William H. Seward, the Secretary of State who had pushed for its purchase, by calling the new acquisition … Read more
We are currently marking the hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the single most catastrophic event in the history of nineteenth-century Europe, the Irish Famine of 1845-50. Yet commemorations of the disaster are hampered by a dearth of visual material. It is a problem which applies to Irish history in general before 1900 and one which has been … Read more
In 1892 Dublin Corporation opened a wholesale fruit and vegetable market on a site immediately to the north-east of the Four Courts on the city’s north side. The main reason for its establishment was hygiene. Food was being sold off the back of carts in dirty streets. In 1883 Dublin Corporation’s Market Committee took the … Read more