Reviewed by Mats Greiff In the late 1880s trade unionism was an almost unknown phenomenon among unskilled and semi-skilled workers in Connacht. In the agrarian sector it was only the herdsmen who had made efforts to organise in unions, and in the towns it was the artisans and drapers’ assistants who were organised to a … Read more
Reviewed by Harman Murtagh ‘Power’, as Mao Zse-tung observed, ‘comes from the barrel of a gun’. His aphorism is true in the most literal sense of early modern Europe where the introduction of gunpowder and artillery precipitated a military revolution, which so overthrew traditional medieval security arrangements as to beget an entirely new military system, … Read more
Reviewed by Robert Fisk The contemporary Irish interest in the reprinting of Michael Collins’ notes of August 1922 was not lost on Mercier Press. On the back of their book are Collins’ remarks about the vain efforts to bring about a truce with the British in December 1920: The actions taken indicated an over-keen desire … Read more
Tom Crean was born in 1877 in Annascaul, County Kerry. At the age of twenty he ran away from home and by 1901 he was serving as naval seaman in the New Zealand squadron of the Royal Navy. It was from here that he joined Scott’s ship Discovery on its way to Antarctica. By 1914 … Read more
At the last annual general meeting of the Federation of Local History Societies, Rathfeigh Historical Society reported on the possible replacement of a statue of Saint Patrick on the Hill of Tara. The original was removed by the OPW, after consultation with the bishops ofthe area, for possible refurbishment but was found to have deteriorated … Read more