In the middle of the night, on 1 June 1866, nearly 1,000 Fenians crossed the Niagara River from Buffalo, New York. The vanguard, Colonel Owen Starr’s Seventeenth Regiment from Louisville, Kentucky, seized control of the village of Fort Erie, cut the telegraph wires and established a bridgehead. On the following day the Fenian army, commanded … Read more
The noted linguist, Celtic studies expert and Nazi propagandist Dr Hans Hartmann has been enjoying something of a revival recently. First he had a starring role, albeit dramatised, in Desmond Bell’s film The enigma of Frank Ryan. This depicted Hartmann interviewing Ryan about his IRA role in wartime Berlin, something that never actually happened, although … Read more
Set in the small market town of Bantry, surrounded by one of the spate rivers that drain from the Knocknaveagh range to the south, is one of Ireland’s most unusual examples of Modernist architecture. Bantry Library was designed in 1962 by the Cork County Council architect Patrick McSweeney, and the project was developed and overseen … Read more
Sir, —Owing to my interest in Latin American history and politics, Ipicked up the July/August 2008 issue (Ireland and Latin America) withgreat interest. Looking at Jim Fitzpatrick’s famous reworking ofKorda’s photo of Che at a public funeral in Havana, however, I spotteda factual error that seems to have passed into fact, particularly inIreland. The poster … Read more
Sir, —Michael O’Neill-Mockler’s list of monsters in his letter in thelast issue includes Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, the Shah of Iran andPinochet. Interestingly, all the names on his list speak funnylanguages or have moustaches or are followers of exotic religions. Andof course they all come from ‘over there’. I wonder has he ever seenthe … Read more