In late April 1922, thirteen Protestants were murdered or disappeared over three horrific nights in West Cork. In The IRA and its enemies (1998) Peter Hart described this as a massacre motivated primarily by sectarian hatred. Others said that the killing had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with spying against the … Read more
The Big House Lennox Robinson Abbey Theatre, Dublin by Eamon O’Flaherty The Abbey’s decision to revive The Big House more than 50 years after its last run was amply vindicated by the success of the recent production, which also revealed how much an improvement has been made, at relatively little cost, by the new auditorium. … Read more
January 5 1922Sir Ernest Shackleton, polar explorer, died suddenly in South Georgia as he prepared to lead a fourth expedition to the Antarctic. 7 1922Dáil Éireann approved the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64 votes to 57. 16 1922Michael Collins, as chairman of the Provisional Government of Southern Ireland, formally accepted the transfer of power from the … Read more
In spite of severe ongoing cutbacks, not to mention a philistine and counterproductive proposal to amalgamate it with the National Library to save money, the National Archives scored another triumph recently with the launch of its on-line Treaty exhibition (http://treaty.nationalarchives.ie/), which includes not only the signed 1921 Treaty document itself (now available to the public … Read more
Sir,—I am glad to be in the position to let Niall Meehan and Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc (letters, HI, Nov./Dec. 2011) know that any errors—mostly minor transcriptional and/or typographical—that they found in the first edition of The Year of Disappearances have been corrected as part of the process of bringing out a second edition. Any other issues raised … Read more