Eoin MacNeill (1867–1945) was above all a scholar, a historian of early and medieval Ireland, and an Irish linguist. His call for Irish nationalists to establish a militia in imitation of the Ulster Volunteers (in his article ‘The North began’), and his subsequent command of the Irish Volunteers, was what propelled him into a leadership … Read more
Corravahan House, near Drung, Co. Cavan, is a mid-nineteenth-century glebe house of the middle size, constructed in the Italianate classical style. Thanks largely to lengthy occupation by the Leslie family, it is one of the most intact examples of its type and a fitting tribute to the Dublin architect William Farrell (d. 1851). William Farrell … Read more
The Inquisitions are ‘treasury’ documents, recording the rights and privileges of the crown over land held by tenants-in-chief in Ireland. The Inquisitions Post Mortem were surveys undertaken by the court of chancery or exchequer at the time of death of the landholder. The earliest start in 1276 but there is a notable gap between the … Read more
An exhibition—‘George Catlin: American Indian Portraits’—opened earlier this year in the National Portrait Gallery, London, with the bull buffaloes of British art criticism, Brian Sewell and Andrew Graham-Dixon, locking horns over whether the self-taught Pennsylvanian was any use as a painter. The show has since moved to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. It is … Read more
Following the First World War, the perceived inadequacies of the peace settlement were a major contributing factor to political turmoil in Italy. Coining the phrase ‘mutilated victory’, the acclaimed poet, politician and soldier Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863–1938) emerged as the high priest of Italian irredentism. Acting on his grievances, he formed a private army, which in … Read more