Irish and Irish-American Catholic admiration for McCarthy, while widespread, was far from universal. By Gerard Madden When attendees gathered to hear Joseph McCarthy, the young junior senator for Wisconsin, address the Republican Women’s Club of Wheeling, West Virginia, on 9 February 1950, little did they realise that they were about to witness one of the … Read more
A startling discovery about Ernest Blythe (1889–1975), a central figure in the Irish revolution and early Free State, who re-emerged as managing director of the Abbey Theatre (1941–67) after his premature departure from parliamentary politics in 1936. By David Fitzpatrick Ernest Blythe was brought up near Lisburn, but only developed an active interest in the … Read more
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