In 1957 David Gray, the US wartime minister to Ireland, wrote publicly that Taoiseach Eamon de Valera ‘maintained a neutrality, which served only Hitler’s objectives’. Ian Wood quotes Gray’s comment but never seeks to get behind it. Gray played an integral part in a conspiracy involving both Winston Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt to distort … Read more
Gerard Murphy’s new book is the latest examination of the Protestant experience in revolutionary Cork. It offers an engaging narrative, often based on extensive research, that will open new doors for Irish historians. Murphy provocatively argues that the IRA secretly executed up to 40 Cork Protestants in 1922, prompting a sectarian exodus from the city. … Read more
The press release for Donnacha Ó Beacháin’s pithily titled Destiny of the Soldiers: Fianna Fáil, Irish Republicanism and the IRA, 1926–1973 (Gill & Macmillan, 538pp, €29.99/£26.99, ISBN 9780717147632) claims that it ‘is the first detailed examination of the links between the natural party of Irish government and militant republicanism’. But as the electorate waits in … Read more
The role of education in museums, arts and heritage venues (1998) ISBN 0903162962 The nature of the education service in museums, arts and heritage venues (1999) ISBN 0903162997 The museum visit: virtual reality and the gallery (2000) ISBN 0903162946 Learning in museums (2002) ISBN 1904288022 Effective presentation and interpretation in museums (2003) ISBN 1904288057 All … Read more
Rebel City: Larkin, Connolly and the Dublin labour movement John Newsinger (Merlin Press, £14.95) ISBN 085036518X Early twentieth-century Ireland witnessed massive labour unrest. John Newsinger’s book is a sympathetic account of the first wave of Irish syndicalism that saw the rise of James Larkin’s ITGWU and its eventual defeat in the Great Lockout of … Read more