While recent attention has naturally focused on the significance of the Act for the extension of the franchise to women, this was only one of its provisions. By Brian Walker The Representation of the People Act brought in a number of changes to electoral laws that had an important effect on the 1918 general election. … Read more
The political conversion of Orangeman Frederick Youell. By Quincey Dougan In its 21 January 1909 edition, the Belfast Weekly News contained an editorial entitled ‘The Vanguard County’, a report on the proceedings of the recently held meeting of the County Grand Orange Lodge of Leitrim, and it was unusual in that it also included portraits … Read more
Brexit or no Brexit, the Irish border is a subject of interest to many. People have been killed as a direct or indirect result of its existence and it has facilitated criminality for generations. There is, however, a lighter side. By Cormac Bourke It would make for instructive television to challenge unionists and nationalists to … Read more
In the year when we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the parliamentary vote for women, a look at the later lives of some of the women involved and their support for Indian independence—Maud Gonne MacBride, Charlotte Despard and Mollie Woods. By Kate O’Malley Maud Gonne This Irish nationalist/feminist icon needs little introduction, but what are … Read more
Cork city—a case-study. By Pat Poland In the early hours of Saturday 31 May 1941, the Whit bank holiday weekend, Acting Chief Officer John J. McInerney of Cork Fire Brigade was summoned from his quarters at the Central Fire Station to the watchroom to take an urgent telephone call. Bombs had again fallen on Dublin, … Read more