After almost a century, readers of Ulysses are still learning about how and why James Joyce created one of the most complex and provocative Jewish characters in literature. By Vincent Altman O’Connor While Leopold Bloom is the most renowned Irish Jew of all time, it is generally accepted that the character was modelled on Joyce’s … Read more
AFTER THE FORMATION LAST YEAR OF A GOVERNMENT INCORPORATING INDEPENDENT MINISTERS AND RELIANT ON INDEPENDENT TDS TO AN UNPRECEDENTED EXTENT, IT MAY BE OF INTEREST TO LOOK BACK ON A CELEBRATED INDEPENDENT COUNCILLOR AND TD WHO DECIDED THE FATE OF A GOVERNMENT By Patrick Maume Seán D. Dublin Bay Loftus will be remembered, especially by … Read more
DOCUMENTS OUTLINING OFFICIAL PLANNING FOR THE STATE’S TRANSITION TO WORLD WAR III By Michael Kennedy The impact of a ten-megaton hydrogen bomb on Dublin would be cataclysmic. A 1958 Department of Defence map showed concentric circles of devastation moving out from a notional city centre ‘ground burst’. South to Dundrum, west to the Phoenix Park … Read more
THE LITTLE-KNOWN CORFU CRISIS OF 1923 PROVIDED INEXPERIENCED IRISH DIPLOMATS WITH A BLUNT INTRODUCTION TO POWER POLITICS By Mark Phelan In August 1923, brigands murdered an Italian general and several of his assistant compatriots who were part of an international commission attempting to define the disputed frontier between Albania and Greece. Because the murders occurred … Read more
WHAT WAS THE CONTEXT OF THE 12 JULY RIOT IN ST JOHNSTON, CO. DONEGAL, DURING WHICH 70 PEOPLE WERE INJURED AND PROTESTANT CHURCHES, BUSINESSES AND HOMES ATTACKED? By Brian Hanley July 1972 was the worst month of the bloodiest year of the Northern Ireland conflict. As violence intensified, many in the Republic feared that the … Read more