In the early twentieth century Ballymena, Co. Antrim, was a self-confident heartland of Ulster unionism. As a market town it stood at the heart of a thriving agricultural district. As an industrial centre it possessed textile mills and foundries, offering employment to thousands of workers and wealth to local entrepreneurs. A busy railway connected the … Read more
Ballymena was also the site of some of the most lavish displays of unionist street-theatre during the Home Rule crisis. The most striking example occurred on the occasion of a visit in July 1913 by Sir Edward Carson. Sir Arthur O’Neill MP had been a soldier in the Life Guards cavalry regiment, whose job it … Read more
Such well-narrated historical processes as the Roman, French and Russian revolutions allow us to identify the common traits of a revolution as distinct from a coup d’état or similar change of regime. I believe that the Irish Revolution had all these traits but that this has so far not been recognised by historians, with the … Read more
Sir, —In his review of Coolacrease (HI 17.2, March/April 2009) JoostAugusteijn attempts to be fair. But he falls into a trap laid byBritish politicians and journalists, and noted by Edward MacLysaght inhis diary for 28 January 1919, exactly one week after the first meetingof Dáil Éireann: ‘In quoting statistics for last year’s general election they … Read more
Sir, —In relation to Joost Augusteijn’s review (HI 17.2, March/April2009) on the controversy over the June 1921 shootings of the Pearsonbrothers at their family farm in Coolacrease, Co. Offaly, by the IRA,your readers may be interested in a scrap of information that I cameacross when editing Wilfrid Ewart’s A Journey in Ireland 1921 for UCDPress … Read more