The military historian J.F.C. Fuller described Grant as ‘the greatest general of his age and one of the greatest strategists of any age’. If Abraham Lincoln was the Union’s political saviour, Ulysses S. Grant saved the Union militarily. Lincoln’s apt riposte to those who objected to Grant’s fondness for the bottle was: ‘I wish some … Read more
The 9th of April 2015 marked the 150th anniversary of the ending of the American Civil War, one of the major turning points in American history. It resolved the questions of slavery and nationhood that were lingering from the Revolutionary War of 1776–83. The Confederacy was destroyed, as the war to restore the Union gave … Read more
Samuel Neilson was born on 17 September 1761 at Ballyroney, Co. Down, to Alexander Neilson, a Presbyterian minister, and his wife Agnes. He was the second-born of a large family of eight boys and five girls and was educated in liberal arts and mathematics. He married Anne Bryson in 1785 when he worked as a … Read more
Public attitudes towards lesbians or sapphites were ambiguous, as sex between women was not illegal, although sodomy or male homosexuality had been brutally supressed by law since the early fourteenth century. Classed as degrading, degenerate, bestial, immoral and unnatural, it was a serious criminal act for which men were hung, imprisoned, transported, whipped, branded and … Read more
The Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains together with Clans of Ireland (Fínte na hÉireann), in association with the History Department of Trinity College, Dublin, and History Ireland magazine, is offering a prize of €750 for the winning entrant in an essay competition on Gaelic Ireland. Entry is open to all persons over eighteen years … Read more