were a standard feature of late nineteenth-century Irish nationalism and were generally presented by voluntary subscription in recognition of outstanding achievement. The National Library of Ireland is the custodian of a large collection of such addresses, one of the most remarkable of which is the ‘Illuminated Address to Charles Stewart Parnell from the Tenant Farmers … Read more
In May 1933 some visiting dignitaries from Scotland were being given a tour of Stormont as guests of John W. Nixon, an Independent Unionist MP. Without warning, the leader of the delegation, Charles Forster, a Scottish Protestant League member and Glasgow city councillor, threw red paint at a large painting, while his colleague Mary Ratcliffe … Read more
By 1871 ‘Captain’ Charles Cunningham Boycott had been on Achill Island for seventeen years and had proven himself to be a good and successful farmer in a hostile and challenging environment; quite understandably, he wanted to move on to farm better land on the mainland, somewhere he could race his horses and be closer to … Read more
One of the more remarkable structures in the country is the Dennis mausoleum, located in the old Clonbern graveyard, 21km north-east of Tuam, Co. Galway. It was erected in about 1865 to house the remains of Colonel Maurice Griffin Dennis (1805–63) and his wife Elizabeth, and they lie there still. After a successful military career … Read more
COOKE, Adolphus (1792–1876), was born in Cookesborough near Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, the illegitimate son of Robert Cooke, landowner, and an unnamed servant. Adolphus’s mother was sent away, and he was raised by a nurse, Mary Kelly, in a two-roomed thatched cottage, forbidden to visit his father’s house. Educated in England, he joined the army, serving … Read more