THIRTY YEARS AGO A RADIOACTIVE PLUME CREATED BY THE CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT DRIFTED OVER EUROPE. FILES HELD IN THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE OF NORTHERN IRELAND ALLOW US SOME INSIGHTS INTO THE OFFICIAL RESPONSE NORTH OF THE BORDER. By Alan W. Robertson At 1am on 26 April 1986, Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power station in … Read more
IT IS UNFAIR TO HIS MEMORY TO MAKE HIM A SCAPEGOAT FOR IRISH ANTI-SEMITISM by Colum Kenny In December 1915, the editor of Nationality published on its front page the following rebuttal of anti-Semitism: ‘We do not know of one Nationalist Irishman … who holds the creed that an Irish Jew should be ineligible for … Read more
RECOLLECTIONS OF IRISH IMMIGRANTS IN THE ‘SLAVE NARRATIVES’ FROM THE NEW DEAL’S WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION (WPA) By Joe Regan On 2 November 1938 Mal Boyd sat on his porch in Pine Bluff, Arkansas; he recollected his father’s years as a slave in Texas: ‘Papa belonged to Bill Boyd. Papa said he was his father and … Read more
ASKED TO NAME A FEMALE IRISH INTERNATIONAL SPORTS STAR, INDIVIDUALS SUCH AS THE ATHLETICS ALL-ROUNDER MARY PETERS, THE ATHLETE SONIA O’SULLIVAN, THE SWIMMER MICHELLE SMITH DE BRUIN OR THE BOXER KATIE TAYLOR WOULD SPRING TO MIND. FEW WOULD HAVE HEARD OF CECILIA BETHAM. By Brian Griffin For a number of years in the 1860s, Cecilia … Read more
OSCAR TRAYNOR WAS A CONVENTIONAL MEMBER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY GENERATION, BUT WHAT MARKED HIM OUT FROM MANY OF HIS COLLEAGUES WAS HIS ALLEGIANCE TO WHAT WAS OFTEN DISMISSED AS A ‘FOREIGN’ GAME By Brian Hanley Born in Dublin in 1886, the son of a Fenian, Oscar Traynor was a skilled tradesman (a compositor) and a … Read more