Julius Pokorny was a German Celtic scholar who supported Irish nationalism and the Gaelic League. He corresponded with Douglas Hyde, met Éamon de Valera and is mentioned by name in Ulysses. And he was a German nationalist who lost his chair in Berlin because of Jewish ancestry, after which an Irish visa saved his life. … Read more
Feagh M’Hugh of the mountain— Feagh M’Hugh of the glen— Who has not heard of the Glenmalur Chief, And the feats of his hard-riding men? When these lines by Thomas D’Arcy McGee were published in The Nation in 1854, one wonders if indeed any of its readers had heard much about the feats of the … Read more
Oliver Cromwell spent only nine months in Ireland but few men’s footprints have been so deeply imprinted upon Irish history and historiography. This theme was explored by a number of invited lecturers at the fifth annual symposium of the Old Drogheda Society on 12 September 1999 in the Boyne Valley Hotel. The chairman of the … Read more
From earliest times Gaelic Ireland and Scotland, united by the sea, formed part of the same cultural, linguistic, religious, economic and political ethos. The cultural and linguistic homogeneity, together with the political instability of this North Channel World, alarmed central government. For the monarchs and their ministers—whether in Dublin, Edinburgh or London—regarded the economic, political … Read more
Golf, because of its Scottish origins, is not among the “foreign games” which members of the GAA are forbidden to play. On the other hand, in the large newsagents of Dublin one can find daily newspapers from every western European country, except Scotland. The Scotsman and The Herald are unobtainable in Dublin. This is perhaps … Read more