Between comrades: James Connolly, letters and correspondence, 1889–1916 Donal Nevin (ed.) (Gill & Macmillan, €29.99) ISBN 9780717142231 At last! After decades of calls to action, a beginning has been made. In this volume nearly all of James Connolly’s letters are collected. In addition, the first pages contain much correspondence unconnected with him save insofar as … Read more
Judging Dev: A reassessment of the life and legacy of Éamon de Valera Diarmaid Ferriter (Royal Irish Academy, €30/£25) ISBN: 9781904890287 De Valera was unquestionably the dominant political figure of twentieth-century Ireland. His achievements included the foundation of Fianna Fáil, wartime neutrality, constitutional innovation, and democratically remaining in power for sixteen uninterrupted years. All of … Read more
At the London Olympic Games in 1908 Irish-born athletes won 33 medals. In athletics Irish-born athletes won five golds—hammer, 200m sprint, triple jump (then known as the ‘hop, step and jump’), discus and discus (Greek-style). Silver medals were won in the shot-put, the hammer and the high jump, and bronze medals in the 100m sprint, … Read more
Beyond the Pale National Photographic Archive, Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 +353 (0)1 6030200, photoarchive@nli.ie, www.nli.ie Mon.–Fri. 10am–5pm, Sat. 10am–2pm by Tony Canavan Old photographs, especially in black and white, have a continuing fascination for the public and have an authenticity about them that other remnants of times gone by seem to lack. … Read more
When hammer-thrower Pat O’Callaghan returned from Amsterdam in 1928 as the first Olympic champion from an Irish state, he declared: ‘I am glad of my victory, not of the victory itself, but for the fact that the world has been shown that Ireland has a flag, that Ireland has a national anthem, and in fact that … Read more