In March 1848 a concerned mayor of Waterford, Sylvester Phelan, wrote to T.N. Reddington, under-secretary for Ireland, asking what action he should take in relation to an Irish tricolour hanging from 33 The Mall. The reply the mayor received is unclear, but records show that the flag was still flying ten days later. Thomas Francis … Read more
The term ‘municipal revolution’ was coined by Sidney and Beatrix Webb to describe the nineteenth-century transformation of borough corporations in England and Wales, and was first applied to Ireland by the present author in 2010. The Municipal Revolution in Ireland has been overlooked for a number of reasons. One is that Irish nationalism imagined the … Read more
The Irish War of Independence was a war of many firsts: it was the first time that government forces used large numbers of motor vehicles against insurgents; in turn, it was the first time that insurgents conducted an ambush campaign against motor vehicles; finally, it was the first time that government forces ‘up-armoured’ (to use … Read more
The ‘quiet and insidious’ methods of political influence and control used by the Catholic clergy in Meath ‘leave life not worth living in small country towns and villages’, Navan’s town clerk, James Lawlor, complained despondently to the Irish Independent in February 1893, after the Parnellite former MP Pierce Mahony had again been defeated in a … Read more
ROS, Amanda McKittrick (1860–1939), was born Anna Margaret McKittrick on 8 December 1860 in Drumaness, Ballynahinch, Co. Down, fourth child of Edward Amlave McKittrick, head teacher at Drumaness High School, and Eliza McKittrick (née Black). She followed her father into teaching and as early as 1884 attended Marlborough Teacher Training College, Dublin. During her teaching … Read more