Through Irish Eyes is distinct from O’Farrell’s earlier works in that it is not a conventional academic type history in the written sense, rather it is a collection of photographs, posters and cartoons whose intention it is to both at once celebrate and give some insight into an earlier culture of ‘Irishness’ in an adopted … Read more
Africa: a modern history Guy Arnold (Atlantic Books, £35 hb) ISBN 1843541750 The state of Africa Martin Meredith (The Free Press, £12.99 pb) ISBN 0743232216 Africa since independence Paul Nugent (Palgrave, ?27.70) ISBN 0333682734 Histories of the hanged David Anderson (Phoenix, £10.99 pb) ISBN 039332754X Britain’s gulag Caroline Elkins (Pimlico, £8.99 pb) ISBN 1844135489 Africa, … Read more
Coleridge and Matthew Arnold defended the Church of England on the grounds that its clergy spread civilisation among their flocks. Canon P.A. Sheehan of Doneraile (1852-1913) hoped the Catholic clergy might perform the same role in Ireland. Since the early 1970s critics and social historians have used his novels and those of his less well-known … Read more
KEARNEY, Mother Kevin (1875–1957), missionary sister, was born on 28 April 1875 in Knockenrahan, Arklow, Co. Wicklow, the third and youngest daughter of Michael Kearney, farmer, and Teresa Kearney (née Grennell); she was baptised Mary Teresa. Her father died before her birth, and after her mother’s death in 1885 she was reared by her maternal … Read more
Dr R. E. G. Armattoe was a man of many talents—a medical doctor, anthropologist, writer of prose and poetry, and, towards the end of his life, a budding politician. Although born and raised in Africa and receiving most of his tertiary education in Germany and France, Armattoe spent over a decade working in Northern Ireland. … Read more