As the loyalist murals of Belfast’s Shankill Road and the jerseys worn by Tyrone’s Gaelic footballers show, claims to the Red Hand of Ulster have been contested for centuries. From the earliest times, personal emblems have been used to identify prominent people and their descendants. The lasting use of such symbols extended to civil purposes … Read more
History as fairytale? Elizabeth: the Golden Age Director: Shekhar Kapur by Hiram Morgan Director: Zack Synder by Ciarán Brady This film is great fun but it is not history. It is an Anglo-Protestant present-centred interpretation of history wrapped up in Hollywood glamour, Harry Potter fantasy and Monty Python caricature. It is a sequel to the … Read more
Sir, —The Autumn issue of History Ireland has just come through the letterbox and I happen to have opened it on Áine Maire Chadwick’s letter on White Sorrel, the white horse so famously associated with King Billy. As your correspondent points out, this was not the horse ridden by William at the Battle of … Read more
Born in Kerry, Bernard Connor received his early education in Ardfert and went to university in France, first in Montpelier and then Rheims, graduating there as a doctor of physic in 1693. He travelled widely in his short career. After a brief period practising medicine in Paris, he set out to accompany the sons of … Read more
The term galloglass (gallóglach) is usually translated as ‘foreign warrior’ but is in fact a short-hand for ‘warrior from Innse Gall (the Hebrides)’. They first entered military service in Ireland in the middle of the thirteenth century. What sort of military technology did they have at their disposal and how effective was it? Ships The … Read more