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
The Irishwoman who became the first female lord mayor of Manchester almost 70 years ago. By Arnold Horner Born in 1877, Mary Latchford Jones grew up in an upwardly mobile Protestant family that migrated across suburban Dublin. Her father, Percival Jones, had spent his early years assisting in a Capel Street china and earthenware shop … Read more
Revered as a saint in India, more effort has gone into honouring her memory than understanding her. By Malachi O’Doherty Margaret Noble, or Sister Nivedita, was a far more complex and interesting person, judging by her letters, than most research on her suggests. She is widely regarded as a saintly woman. She had followed the … Read more