The Starry Plough flag has been in the possession of the National Museum (NMI) since 1956 and has recently been conserved in commemoration of the centenaries of the foundation of the Labour Party (1912), the Dublin Lockout (1913) and the Easter Rising (1916). Funding was provided by individual contributions from members of the Labour Party. … 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
On 24 October 1913 Jack White organised a pro-Home Rule rally in Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, aimed at rallying Ulster Protestants who supported Home Rule. While support for nationalism and unionism was usually intertwined with confessional affiliation – nationalists tended to be Catholic, unionists tended to be Protestant – there had always been a small minority … Read more
The republican trade unionist and ITGWU organiser P.T. Daly alleged that the low wages paid to the female employees at Jacob’s factory were ‘the cause of driving many of them onto the streets as prostitutes’. The Dublin Metropolitan Police estimated in 1901 that while female prostitution was decreasing there were still an estimated 1,677 women … Read more
The lockout brought much hardship to families, affected trade and occupied both the infirmary and the court house. It therefore drew reactions from various and diverse groups. The GAA quickly showed their support for the locked-out men by staging challenge matches to raise funds. Even funds from the Leinster hurling final between Dublin and Kilkenny … Read more