Dublin loyalists were undoubtedly engaged in gunrunning through the city. In 1964 a Mr Stokes of Cork wrote to the Irish Times expressing his surprise that in recent coverage remembering the Howth gunrunning (to the Irish Volunteers) the Dún Laoghaire gunrunning had not been mentioned. In a detailed account, Mr Stokes told the Times that … Read more
Bill Clements (The Holliwell Press, £12.95) ISBN 9780992610401 Did the Martello towers of Ireland truly deter Napoleon and were they worth the £250,000 invested in their construction from 1804 to 1817 (equivalent to £50,000,000 today)? How were these permanent defences designed, what was their purpose after Waterloo, and how have the surviving ones—such a distinguishing … Read more
An Léigear/The Siege 1922 Fastnet Films, TG4, 23 October 2013 Witnesses to war RTÉ1, 12 November 2013 TG4, it is fair to say, is now the home of the Irish documentary on TV. A couple of years ago we reviewed An Conradh/The Treaty (HI 20.2, March/April 2012), produced by Fastnet Films and directed by Andrew … Read more
2013 is the centenary of the Lockout, but the big one os on the horizen already. Every day at 2.30pm, Glasnevin Cemetery is hosting a re-enactment of Patrick Pearse’s famous (or infamous) oration at the grave of the Fenian Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa on 1 August 1915, where he revealed that he and others were, as … Read more