New evidence of early matches has necessitated a reappraisal of Irish soccer’s foundation story. By Martin Moore According to its foundation myth, association football was introduced into Ireland on 24 October 1878, when John McAlery organised an exhibition match in Belfast between two Scottish teams, Caledonian and the famous Queen’s Park. McAlery, known as the … Read more
This year will mark the 200th anniversary of one of Ireland’s most notorious murders: the brutal killing of a beautiful fifteen-year-old peasant girl called Ellie Hanley, who became known asthe Colleen Bawn. By Robert Whelan Elopement and sham marriage Ellie Hanley lived in Ballicahane, just outside the city of Limerick. Her great beauty attracted the … Read more
By Fiona Fitzsimons The Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878, gave power to local authorities to establish mortuaries, and authorised any justice to order the removal of dead bodies to a mortuary. Where death was sudden, violent or unexplained, the body could be brought to a morgue for post-mortem examination before burial. Depending on the result, … Read more
In R.M. Fox’s collection of biographical essays Rebel Irishwomen (1935), included alongside Maud Gonne MacBride, Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and Constance Markievicz is an obscure London-born nurse, Dora Maguire. Who was she and what did she achieve during her short life? By James Curry An unlikely Irish republican and labour activist, Theodora Agnes Eleanor Maguire was born … Read more
Constance Markievicz: feminist, revolutionary—and Catholic. By Mary Kenny During the 2018 referendum on removing the eighth amendment from the Irish Constitution (which recognised the right to life of the unborn), feminist campaigners for repeal invoked images of the revolutionary and feminist Constance Markievicz to support their side of the campaign. But would Con Markievicz have … Read more