This topic suggested itself while I was studying Irish antiquarianism during the Enlightenment. I was investigating the Royal Irish Academy and the scholarly and political élite who were central to its establishment in 1785 as the national body for the promotion of ‘science, polite literature and antiquities’. I was looking at the scholarly activities of … Read more
In 1876 the Academy elected its second Irish honorary female member—the archaeologist Margaret Stokes, sister of the philologist Whitley Stokes MRIA. Stokes was the first woman honorary member to contribute papers to RIA meetings and subsequently to the Academy’s Transactions. She was not, however, the first woman to be published by the Academy—that honour fell … Read more
In common with the majority of such societies, it took the RIA over 150 years to allow women into its membership on the same terms as men, but it was prepared from early on to confer honorary membership on a small number of women (five in total between 1791 and 1876). The first was Princess … Read more
Samuel Page was sworn in by the Manchester Police Constabulary to act as a ‘special constable’ for the duration of the weekend of the executions and was stationed directly in front of the condemned men at the foot of the gallows. A large number of ‘respectable’ local men were commissioned in such a fashion in order to … Read more
On 18 September 1867 about 50 Irish Fenians, led by William Allen, attacked a prison van guarded by a large number of unarmed police at Hyde Road in Manchester, England. Their aim was to release two important Fenian prisoners, Thomas J. Kelly and Timothy Deasy. In the course of freeing the men, an unarmed police … Read more