With typical Irish flare for understatement, the series of events outlined in Colin Barr’s book came generally to be known as the ‘Callan case’, which conjures up images of an insignificant incident in the rural Ireland of the latter half of the nineteenth century. As the title of the book intimates, however, there were far … Read more
Frances Browne was born in Stranorlar, Co. Donegal, in 1816. By the time of her death in 1879 she had carved out a relatively successful literary career as a prolific poet, essayist, novelist and writer of children’s stories that had taken her from her quiet village to the bustling cities of Edinburgh and London—despite having … Read more
It is thought that the remarkable lodge on Mount Pelier Hill was erected c. 1725. The game-rich lands in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains had come into the possession of William Conolly of Castletown House when he purchased Rathfarnham Castle in 1724, and this hilltop with its spectacular views must have seemed an ideal … Read more
Once a man was consecrated a bishop of the Anglican church, he had a seat in the House of Lords. Bishops were especially loyal to Dublin Castle because, as Jeremiah Falvey has shown in his ground-breaking study of the eighteenth-century episcopate, 40 of them owed their elevation to the fact that they had been chaplains … Read more
After the partial repeal of Poynings’ Law in 1782, the Irish House of Lords became a much more important body than before. The Lords represented the great landowners and the Anglican Church; therefore, from 1782 to 1800, it required the best efforts of government in its management, thus demonstrating its true political significance. Support of … Read more