The establishment of the Kynoch explosives factory in Arklow was due to the vision and ambition of two men, Arthur Chamberlain and A.T. Cocking. Arthur Chamberlain was a Birmingham industrialist and brother of the famous liberal politician Joseph Chamberlain. In 1888 Chamberlain joined the board of Kynoch and set about reviving the fortunes of … Read more
Nineteenth-century Ireland produced some of the most enthusiastic amateur sky-watchers in the British Isles, with the late Victorian era now being seen as the zenith of the ‘gentleman astronomer’. Astronomy had always been unique amongst the sciences, as anyone with an interest and some technical skill could greatly enhance knowledge of the subject. During … Read more
In 1754 the British ambassador in Paris recorded: ‘Sir, Mlle Murphy was brought to bed of a boy last Sunday, at the castle of Versailles… it is kept private as yet, and only whispered in confidence. Whether this will occasion a revolution with respect to the reigning favourite, will be known in a little … Read more
Sir, —Further to the letter in the July/August 2005 issue of HI by FelixM. Larkin regarding errors in the Oxford Dictionary of NationalBiography entry on Edmund Dwyer Gray (1845–88), there is a furtherpossible error in one edition of that publication, which states that hemarried a young lady named Caroline Agnes Chisolm, author of TheEmigrant’s Friend, … Read more
Gothic Ireland: horror and the Irish Anglican imagination in the long eighteenth century Jarlath Killeen (Four Courts, E55) ISBN 1851829431 The title of this book initially suggests a study of the Gothic genre in Ireland in the eighteenth century, but Killeen delivers instead ‘a history of the social memory of Irish Anglicanism’, focusing on the … Read more