The history of Irish coinage has followed a fascinating route, from early Norman ‘St Patrick’ coins, through Tudor debasement and the gun money coinage of the Battle of the Boyne, to the new money of the Irish Free State. In this ground-breaking narrative, Edward Colgan not only tells the story of the evolution of Irish … Read more
Monkstown Parish Church has been described as ‘a glorious extravaganza’, ‘a mule between the Gothic and the Saracenic’, a place unsuitable for Christian worship, a ‘perversion of judgement and taste’, a building of originality and beauty, a masterpiece. Outraged critics and ecstatic admirers outdo each other in their adjectival usage, while others use more cautious … Read more
The story of the Waterford shipyards highlights the role of Quakers as entrepreneurs, and particularly as risk-takers, who were willing to fund new enterprises, providing rare economic relief to underdeveloped areas. Their shipbuilding ventures in Waterford were as technologically advanced as any similar development of the day. Shipbuilding in Waterford is richly illustrated and, coupled … Read more
Irish women and nationalism: soldiers, new women and wicked hags Louise Ryan and Margaret Ward (eds) (Irish Academic Press, €25 paperback) ISBN 0716527677This book explores Irish women’s engagement with nationalism from a variety of perspectives, including history, sociology, cultural and language studies, law, anthropology and community-based research. The editors, Louise Ryan and Margaret Ward, who … Read more
Ireland: a social and cultural history, 1922–2002 Terence Brown (Harper Perennial, €15) ISBN 0007125761For this third edition of his enormously influential survey of the social and cultural history of independent Ireland, Terence Brown has brought us up to the year 2002. This is an interesting development, for it involves the chronicling of the culture wars … Read more