On 3 July 2012 Drew Nelson, grand secretary of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, became the first member of the Orange Order to formally address the Irish Oireachtas when he accepted an invitation to speak to members of the Senate. Just over a week later, on 12 July, President Michael D. Higgins hosted a … Read more
The financial deprivations caused by the First World War accelerated the decline of the already unhealthy financial situation of Sligo Corporation. In August 1917 an inquiry blamed its poor financial situation on ‘the neglect of proper administrative procedures’. The borough’s leading ratepayers (largely Protestant) believed that they must gain political representation on the corporation in … Read more
The Whitechurch Carnegie Free Library first opened its doors on St Patrick’s Day 1911. It was designed by Thomas Joseph Byrne (1876–1939), then council clerk and architect to the South Dublin Rural District Council. Byrne was born in Kingston-on-Thames and commenced his study of architecture at the age of fifteen, articled to Edward Carter ARIBA … Read more
On 29 October 1929 the Catholic national newspaper, The Standard, proudly proclaimed that the first prosecution under the Censorship of Publications Act 1929 had been successful. The case had been brought against the editor of the Waterford Standard, D.C. Boyd. Boyd was an outsider in Waterford society—a northern Protestant—with a history of investigating corruption and … Read more
In a sermon, reported in the Standard, the bishop of Waterford, Bernard Hackett, advised his flock that: ‘While this outrage [Boyd’s forthright reporting of the Breen trial] remains un-atoned for, parents cannot be expected to admit the offending newspaper to their households with the implicit confidence which they may have hitherto entertained’. The weight of … Read more