Contrary to a widespread impression, the British political élite actually had a reasonable degree of acquaintance with Northern Ireland, and Ireland as a whole, before the Troubles broke out. (Denis Healey’s grandfather, born in Enniskillen, was a Fenian, and his father retained a strong enough sense of Irishness to heckle ‘What about Ireland, Major Healey?’ … Read more
The release of many British Army service records for the 1914–20 period on the internet courtesy of the UK’s National Archives has made available the file of one Thomas Bernard Barry of Roscarberry, Co. Cork. The file is part of the ‘Burnt Documents’ series and accordingly has suffered some fire damage as a result of … Read more
Who owns history? Well, the Carlyle Group has just bought an impressive chunk of it by taking over Getty Images, the world’s largest distributor of stock photographs and videos. The Getty collection contains millions of images from the twentieth century, including all the major historical events such as wars and political upheavals but also many … Read more
How did a self-professed revolutionary socialist draw throngs of Irish-American conservatives? Like its British and Irish counterparts, the American press fell over itself to paint her as a Dark Rosaleen. The Daily News trumpeted her first press conference: ‘Fighting colleen breezes in’. The Irish Echo cooed: ‘She is, in fact, a born leader … of … Read more
In the Irish Free State, the land purchase annuities amounted to over £3m per annum, a substantial figure (given that the total revenue intake in the early 1930s was approximately £25m). The average burden of the annuities on the individual farmer was not huge—about 10% of net income—but it was a fixed amount, so the … Read more