During the eighteenth century and much of the nineteenth, England ruled Ireland through a class of landlords distinguished from their Catholic fellow countrymen not only by economic position but also by religion. As capitalist development threatened the first, they came to broaden the second by appealing to all Protestants regardless of their views, recruiting first … Read more
Instituted in 1856 to reward members of the British army and navy for ‘single acts of valour’, the Victoria Cross has been awarded to over 200 Irishmen, born both here and overseas, representing about 16% of the 1,356 medals awarded. The dates of the awards to Irish soldiers span 90 years, from the Crimean War … Read more
Two summers ago in Derry, a portrait of the eighteenth-century earl-bishop Frederick Hervey was stolen from St Columb’s Cathedral and placed on a bonfire in the Bogside, to be consumed along with Rangers football paraphernalia and other artefacts of Protestant culture and identity. As the BBC news correspondent pointed out at the time, Hervey was … Read more
Picture this: you are approaching the rudimentary home of a soldier one evening as the dusk falls. Squinting through the uncertain light, you wonder for a moment why a man such as this should have contrived a kind of rockery alongside the path that leads to his tent. In fact, the objects neatly spaced on … Read more
Sir,—I refer to Jackie Giddings’s letter (Platform, HI 19.5, Sept./Oct. 2011) concerning difficulties she experienced in using genealogy centres and the response from Brian Donovan of Eneclann.Brian is correct in pointing to the lack of significant central funding of, and commitment to, local archives. It is important to state, however, that there are at present … Read more