In the run-up to the soccer World Cup of 2002 the bust-up between Ireland manager Mick McCarthy and star player Roy Keane in Saipan caused a huge controversy and divided the nation. This was not the first time that the ‘beautiful game’ caused upheaval in Irish society. Back in the 1950s the ‘garrison town game’ … Read more
‘Depression or no depression, the cinema grows more popular everyday in Ireland—already there are more than 30 cinemas in Dublin with more to come. In face of these facts, it may seem perverse to ask if anyone in Ireland is really interested in the cinema at all’ (‘Film Notes’, Irish Times, 29 June 1935, p. … Read more
Wijtschate-Messines Ridge was a battle that some believed presented an opportunity for reconciliation between the two political traditions in Ireland—British unionism and Irish nationalism. If Irishmen could fight and die together, surely they could live together. The symbolism was not lost on politicians, particularly nationalists. In December 1916, Willie Redmond MP wrote to his friend … Read more
Sir, —With reference to Gordon Gillespie’s article ‘Sunningdale and the 1974 Ulster Workers’ Council strike’ (HI 15.3, May/June 2007), we in Justice for the Forgotten were extremely disappointed that an incorrect date was given for the bombing of Dublin and Monaghan, an error that was replicated in your editorial. The no-warning car bombings in Dublin … Read more
In 1979, in one of the first public addresses of his pontificate, Pope John Paul II called for a new study of the long-contested ‘Galileo affair’ that would permit ‘a frank recognition of wrongs from whatever side they came’. Needless to say, the initiative was widely welcomed, and when the pope established a formal commission … Read more