Ukraine is derived from a word meaning ‘frontier’ or ‘borderland’. Its natives dislike the definite article that is usually placed in front of it—‘the Ukraine’—as this seems to suggest that it is not an entity of itself but merely the edge of other peoples’ territories. States, and much less nations, rarely possess natural frontiers or … Read more
On 19 January 2005 John O’Donoghue TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, launched Enneclan’s CD-Rom publication of Ireland’s Memorial Records 1914–1918 at the National War Memorial Gardens at Islandbridge, Dublin. The CD-Rom records the names of more than 49,000 Irishmen who died in the Great War. The rich tapestry of historical and genealogical detail … Read more
Different spanks for different ranks Lions led by donkeys The last words of James Templeton, a 20-year-old mill apprentice from Belfast, are written neatly in his own hand. Before he was executed by his own battalion in the trenches of northern France in 1916, Templeton wrote: ‘I’m sorry for what I have done’. This was … Read more
John Redmond and his party have been treated kindly by academic historians. For the most part, they have accepted the view of his followers, Stephen and Denis Gwynn, that he was a man of immense achievement brought low by factors outside his control, notably the chauvinism of the British War Office and the literal bloody-mindedness … Read more
In March 1919 Benito Mussolini, a socialist turned nationalist, founded a new movement in Milan that became known as ‘fascism’. The fasces—a bound bundle of sticks—had been a symbol of republican unity in ancient Rome. For Mussolini they signified the unity of the nation, and in particular the incorporation into Italy of all Italian-speaking territories … Read more