Kevin Whelan Why is hurling currently popular in a compact region centred on east Munster and south Leinster, and in isolated pockets in the Glens of Antrim and in the Ards peninsula of County Down? The answer lies in an exploration of the interplay between culture, politics and environment over a long period of time. … Read more
Willy Maley Dennis Doolan, of King’s County, and Patrick Redding, from Tipperary, were hung at the scene of their alleged crime before the largest mass of spectators ever gathered together in the West of Scotland. The people present were only part of the mass who lined the road from Glasgow Cross to the place of … Read more
Cormac Ó Gráda The Lumper IndictedSeveral recent contributions to pre-famine Irish economic history have drawn attention to the apparent contrast between the abject poverty of the Irish masses and their relatively high nutritional status. Poverty, they argue, was mitigated by a potato-dominated diet which, while monotonous, was adequate in terms of calories and protein. Modern … Read more
Thomas Bartlett Irish history without a Catholic question might seem as improbable as Irish history without the potato: all Irish history, at least from 1550 onward, can be regarded as an extended comment on the Catholic question. None the less, to contemporaries, British and Irish, the term the Catholic question had a precise meaning: it … Read more
Colm McNamee Introduction These are the terms in which a near-contemporary described the Bruces’ invasions of Ireland (1315-18). Almost every subsequent commentator has remarked upon the unexpectedness and violence of this intrusion into Irish history. Accounting for the adventure has always been difficult, and a variety of explanations have been offered. The first is that … Read more