In May 1488 Henry VII pardoned thirty-three Irish magnates for having allegedly provided support for the ill-fated Lambert Simnel conspiracy which had threatened the throne in favour of the Yorkists in the previous year. Drawn from the church, peerage, administration and urban communities, this group of magnates not only indicates the degree of influence the … Read more
When Duke Heinrich II issued a charter for the newly founded Irish monastery in Vienna in the year 1161, he stipulated that, as far as its occupants were concerned, Irishmen only need apply! The new monastery was originally founded as one of the daughter houses of the important Irish Benedictine foundation dedicated to St James … Read more
The editors have set out to place County Donegal in its local, national and European contexts by combining the work of archaeologists, medievalists, Celtic scholars, geographers, place name scholars and historians of economics, culture and politics. The result is the most comprehensive interdisciplinary study ever undertaken of Donegal. The geographical entity we know today as … Read more
Eight years after the fall of the Berlin Wall seems an appropriate time for the arrival of new European histories which attempt to give East and West parity of esteem. Such histories are now wending their way to the bookstores. Europe: a History has garnered the most headlines (and sales). The layout is innovative. The … Read more
DK: Tell us about your background and early interest in history. FXM: I was born in Ballylongford in north Kerry. It was the height of the Civil War and my father was acting as a doctor with IRA flying columns. Free State soldiers arrived at the house, searching for my father. My mother was eight … Read more