DD: How important was family background and schooling in the development of your historical interests? RBMcD: I was born in the middle of the middle classes, so from the very earliest days I was aware of how the business world thought and lived. I also grew up in the Protestant world of the North … Read more
Before President John Fitzgerald Kennedy visited Ireland, there was considerable behind the scenes diplomatic and security manoeuvring. Six months before the visit, Secretary of State Dean Rusk paid a flying visit and met members of the government. During his six hour stay, he lunched with the Taoiseach, Sean Lemass, and Minister for External Affairs, Frank … Read more
At noon on Saturday 13 October 1888 a locomotive decked with flags steamed into Belfast’s Great Victoria Street terminus. As a hundred men of the Gordon Highlanders presented arms and the band of the Black Watch played ‘God Save the Queen,’ Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, sixth Marquess of Londonderry and lord lieutenant of Ireland, stepped out of … Read more
The relationship between Winston Churchill and Michael Collins has often been characterised as one of mutual respect and rapport which significantly influenced Anglo-Irish relations. Yet, while some form of respect may have developed between these two men, no amount of historical hindsight or sympathetic remembrances should imply that they were anything but adversaries. The relationship … Read more
A protracted war of independence and a bitter civil war left the new Irish Free State with economic and social problems of enormous proportions – the economy and infrastructure were ravaged, unemployment and ill-health were endemic and the wounds of the civil war were far from healed. But the agenda of perhaps the most powerful … Read more