The sky did not fall. Following more than five years of planning and two years of teaching, the new Leaving Certificate history syllabus faced its first practical test in the examining session of summer 2006. And, despite the grumblings of indifferent sceptics and the dire warnings of its open opponents, nothing calamitous happened. There had … Read more
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Dublin Castle’s ‘Personalities Files’ span the emergence of Sinn Féin, the Easter Rising and the War of Independence, with the largest number relating to the period 1917–20. As might be expected, the documents provide a rich source of information on leading figures such as Michael Collins and Eamon de … Read more
They operated like a normal political party, collected subscriptions, kept membership files and reported regularly to party headquarters. The difference with the German Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1930s Ireland, however, was that its headquarters was not in Dublin but in Berlin. The party’s membership—numbering from 50 to 100, depending on whether visitors are included—owed their … Read more
In 1956, shortly after being convicted of violating an anti-boycott law in Montgomery, Alabama, a young Baptist minister named Martin Luther King Jr proclaimed: ‘As I look at it, I guess I have committed three sins. The first sin I have committed is being born a Negro. The second sin that I have committed, along … Read more
Although the Western Front continues to dominate the popular memory of the First World War in Britain and Ireland, the conflict had its beginnings in eastern Europe, and it was here that it would have its profoundest effects. This often overlooked fact was brought home to the world in the 1990s, when the state of … Read more