The decisive stance taken by the Catholic bishop of Cork, Francis Moylan, towards the threat of French invasion in December 1796. By Gordon Kennedy On Christmas Day 1796, while Theobald Wolfe Tone was still anxiously pacing the deck of a French warship, desperately hoping that Lazare Hoche’s subordinates would actually come to a decision and … Read more
As a twenty-something enrolled at the Middle Temple, where he came to know as much about the law as ‘of necromancy’, and making not the slightest attempt to resist the temptations of an ‘idle and luxurious capital’, the future icon of Irish republican nationalism Theobald Wolfe Tone had, of a morning after the night before, … Read more
Remembering the Year of the French: Irish folk history and social memory Guy Beiner (University of Wisconsin Press, $49.95) ISBN 9780299218201 The Irish Folklore Commission, 1935–1970 Micheál Briody (Helsinki: Studia Fennica, €37.69) ISBN 9517469470 1916 in 1966: Commemorating the Easter Rising Mary E. Daly and Margaret O’Callaghan (eds) (Royal Irish Academy, €35) ISBN 9781904890270 Like … Read more
The Writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone, 1763–1798, Volume III: France, the Rhine, Lough Swilly and death of Tone, January 1797 to November 1798 T. W. Moody, R. B. McDowell and C. J. Woods (eds) (Clarendon Press, £125) ISBN 9780198208808The recent publication of the final volume of his Writings seems an appropriate moment to consider the … Read more
On a cold day in March 1796 Aristide Du Petit Thouars, a ci-devant French aristocrat and naval officer just returned from exile in America, visited the Panthéon in the heart of Paris. In his absence France had undergone the Revolution, but with the Terror over, the Bastille torn down and the five-man Directory in power, … Read more