In 1842 Richard Robert Madden published the first volume of what would prove to be one of the most influential sympathetic accounts of the 1798 rebellion in Ireland. The United Irishmen: their lives and times (7 vols, 1842–6) had an immediate impact on nationalist opinion. When the Young Ireland weekly The Nation was founded later … Read more
Sir —Myles Dungan’s article on Captain O’Shea and the Fenians contains interesting information about politics in Clare, but he is surely misinterpreting the situation in speaking of a ‘sustained and practical nature of the [Fenian] alliance with O’Shea’ (p. 37). It was a very regular occurrence from the late 1860s until the mid-1880s for … Read more
The success of Thomas Spring Rice in the Limerick election of 1820 was due to the old style of electioneering, as well as to significant developments in the nature of Irish politics. On one level, constituencies continued to be fought over by wealthy, landed patrons, who deployed their money and influence to secure votes for … Read more
BLAND, Lilian Emily (1878–1971), pioneer aviatrix, was born on 28 September 1878 in Kent, youngest child among one son and two daughters of John Humphrey Bland (1828–1919) of Fernagh, Whiteabbey, Co. Antrim, and Emily Charlotte Bland (née Madden) of Norfolk, granddaughter of Robert Wintringham Bland (1794–1880), dean of Belfast. She was brought up by her … Read more
The National Museum of Ireland’s permanent exhibition Soldiers and Chiefs: The Irish at War at Home and Abroad from 1550 has a large collection of loans from museums around the world. These include items belonging to Major General Patrick Cleburne (1828–64) and the 10th Tennessee Infantry Regiment (Irish) of the Confederate Army, on loan from … Read more