The current boldness of racist groups in the United States reminds us that the history of minority rights in that great country is a troubled one. By Mark Phelan For nineteenth-century Irish immigrants to the USA the path to acceptance and integration was difficult, with the result that prejudice and adversity are common … Read more
The National Library of Ireland recently catalogued and made available the Gough papers, a collection relating to Hugh Gough and his family. The papers reveal much about the life of this ‘illustrious Irishman’ and his lengthy military career. By Fionnuala Walsh In 1986 an equestrian statue depicting Viscount Hugh Gough and describing him as … Read more
The ‘third man’ in the case of British agent John Wyman and Garda Sergeant Patrick Crinnion. By Margaret Urwin and Niall Meehan On 1 December 1972 at 7.58 and 8.15pm, as the Irish Times reported, ‘Two [car] bombs in Dublin city centre killed two [CIÉ workers], injured 127 other people, and dramatically changed the course … Read more
James W. Upton’s unpublished silver jubilee history of the Gaelic Athletic Association. By Tony Keating and Mark Reynolds On 27 April 1932, the annual congress of the GAA approved a request by the association’s central council to advertise for expressions of interest from ‘suitable’ authors to write an official history of the GAA, to mark … Read more
Women’s opposition to the 1937 Constitution. By Joyce Padbury The women’s campaign against the 1937 Constitution was a short and, in the end, unsuccessful intervention in a major political debate, though it did initially achieve amendments to some provisions of the draft document. The campaign is worth remembering as a lively articulation of feminist opinion … Read more