Last November the Irish Times published a highly disingenuous article by the DUP’s Mervyn Storey implying that the schoolchildren of Northern Ireland were being subjected to the ‘insidious indoctrination’ of ‘Darwinian evolutionists’, despite the fact that there were ‘huge swaths of scientific data that point in another direction’ (Irish Times, 3 November 2008). Storey did … Read more
This special issue of History Ireland on Ireland and Latin America serves to highlight the interesting and diverse range of links between these two parts of the world. At the same time it throws into sharp relief the astonishing neglect of the region by the Irish state, by Irish civil society and by the Irish … Read more
COLLINS, Jerome Janus (1841–81), meteorologist, Arctic explorer and founder of Clan na Gael, was born on 17 October 1841 in Cork city, the son of Mark Collins, a lime- and saltworks owner of South Main Street, Cork, and his wife Ellen (née Ryan). He attended St Vincent’s Seminary, Cork, before becoming a civil engineer. He … Read more
Edward Lear is best remembered today for his humorous verses—he first popularised the limerick—which he called his ‘Nonsenses’. This exhibition concentrates on Lear’s early career as a landscape draughtsman up to his departure from England in 1837; it covers his tours in Ireland in August 1835 and in northern Lancashire and the Lake District from … Read more
Born in Ballykelly, Co. Derry, in 1729, William Martin was remarkable for being the first Irish-born minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, which had been introduced by Scottish settlers in the 1660s. In 1760 he became the minister of Kellswater, Co. Antrim, the oldest congregation in the Irish synod. This was a time of economic … Read more