Sir,—In your editorial (HI 20.6, Nov./Dec. 2012) on the Cameron–Salmond agreement at Edinburgh to clarify in advance the legal aspects of a referendum on Scottish independence, you state that Ireland at the time of the 1912–14 Home Rule crisis was ‘not so lucky’, in that a ‘sizeable section of the British establishment’ refused to recognise … Read more
Irish Republicanism in Scotland, 1858–1916: Fenians in exile Máirtín S. Ó Catháin (Irish Academic Press, €24.95/£19.95 pb) ISBN 97807165 28586 During the heady days of 1867 and 1868, the Dublin rising, the Manchester Martyrs, the Clerkenwell prison bomb, the abortive raid on Chester Castle and many smaller episodes ensured that Fenianism generated endless column inches … Read more
A provisional dictator: James Stephens and the Fenian movement Marta Ramón (University College Dublin Press, €18.95) ISBN 9781904558651 James Stephens was not an original thinker like Karl Marx, Giuseppe Mazzini or Michael Bakunin: in fact, as Marta Ramón makes clear in her fine new biography, he could barely write a coherent sentence about politics. Nor … Read more
Kilmainham Gaol Inchicore Road, Kilmainham, Dublin 8 +353 (0)1 4535984 /4532037 (fax), kilmainhamgaol@opw.ie April–Sept.: daily 9.30am–6pm (last admission one hour before closing) Oct.–March: Mon.–Sat. 9.30am–5.30pm; Sun. 10am–6pm Adult €5.30; senior/group €3.70; child/student €2.10; family €11.50 by Tony Canavan For many years Kilmainham Gaol was a shrine to Ireland’s struggle for freedom in which many Irish rebels were … Read more
Where was your family during the famine? Animo Television 8 September 2008, RTÉ 1 by John Gibney The notion of tracing one’s ancestors in any kind of formalised way can easily prompt Irish people to cynicism, usually (and unfairly) directed at Irish-Americans. But the US is fertile ground for genealogy, for in a country where … Read more