We recently devoted a good deal of attention to the Irish involvement in the First World War, and one rather obvious reason why ostentatious commemoration of the Irish war provokes unease and hostility relates to the questionable nature of British policy in Ireland, and the role of British security forces. This is nothing new: when … Read more
The UCD Press website is currently warning potential buyers of the recent Encyclopedia of Music in Ireland to add €25 postage to the already hefty price due to its weight (click here for proof). No harm, in that light, to highlight a project recently launched by UCC. The Irish composer Aloys Fleischmann (1910–1992) was born … Read more
Monday 25 November marks the centenary of the foundation of the Irish Volunteers: an organization that remains strangely neglected by historians. There are a couple of articles on the Volunteers in the current issue of History Ireland, but a quick glance through our back catalogue didn’t turn up much. We have some very good articles … Read more
The Lockout centenary inevitably focuses attention on Dublin’s tenement slums, but urban poverty is nothing new. Amongst the copious holdings of Marsh’s LIbrary are a small collection of papers relating to one of the less salubrious institutions of eighteenth-century Dublin: its workhouse (MS Z.3.1.1, 143-55). … Read more
There are historical commemorations all year round, and the significance of these will surely intensify in the course of the ‘decade of centenaries’. But how inclusive will these commemorations be, and how inclusive should they be? A case in point is the Kilmichael ambush of 18 November 1920. In early August The Southern Star reported on … Read more