Following the escape of the young ‘Red’ Hugh O’Donnell from Dublin Castle and his near-doomed flight over the Wicklow Mountains at the height of the bitterly cold winter of 1591, a prophecy soon spread amongst the native Irish that his escape heralded an imminent victory over the English. Indeed, while passing through Munster in 1599, … Read more
William Daniel was born in Kilkenny around 1570. His mother’s name is unknown but his father was one Nicholas O’Donnell, described in John O’Donovan’s history of east Galway, The tribes and customs of Hy-Many, as a ‘grandson of the earl of Tyrconnell’. It is not clear why this branch of the O’Donnells had settled in … Read more
What is the origin of the word ‘brasil’? In my homeland, Brazil, it seems that everyone knows the answer. Following the definition of the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, it comes from brasa and is associated with the reddish colour of brazilwood (pau-brasil in Portuguese), a dyewood tree commonly found along the Atlantic coast of … Read more
The late 1720s and early 1730s were a period of economic despair in Ireland, as trade stagnated and a succession of poor harvests brought famine and disease. Against this background, anger at bankers and a general distrust of the ‘monied’ section in society became recurring themes in a vigorous pamphlet literature, which considered the causes … Read more
Between 1641 and 1653 Ireland suffered a demographic collapse of staggering proportions. Over a quarter of the population perished as a result of endemic warfare, famine and disease, including the last major outbreak of plague in the country. The architect of the English reconquest of the island, Oliver Cromwell, described Ireland as ‘a clean paper’, … Read more