Revolutionary Period 1912-23
A noble life for a Nobel Laureate
Packed with historical detail, El sueño del celta/The dream of the Celt takes place in a windowless cell in Pentonville Prison during the summer of 1916, as Casement reflects on his life in the weeks before his execution. Interspersed with these musings of a condemned man are chapters relating to his youth, his years in … Read more
Conflict in Ireland, 1916–1977: British cabinet papers on-line
A visit to the UK National Archives at Kew is always a special trip for researchers examining manuscripts from the vast collection of material housed at the impressive south London facility. For students of conflict in Ireland, however, a new on-line facility allows researchers to download a wealth of material relating to Ireland from the British … Read more
Ethnic cleansing? Protestant decline in West Cork between 1911 and 1926
In 1911 the Protestant population in West Cork (defined here as the seven rural districts south of the long-recognised ‘Protestant frontier’ of the Caha Mountains ridge that runs east to Cork Harbour) was 12,228. This dropped to 8,668 in 1926, a decline of 3,560 or 29.11%. If we exclude the 1,045 British military included in … Read more
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: ‘the two histories’
In late April 1922, thirteen Protestants were murdered or disappeared over three horrific nights in West Cork. In The IRA and its enemies (1998) Peter Hart described this as a massacre motivated primarily by sectarian hatred. Others said that the killing had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with spying against the … Read more