Traveller (non) history Recent events at Dunsink Lane, just outside Dublin, have put the issue of Travellers back in the news. In an attempt, they claimed, to clamp down on illegal activity (dumping, diesel-laundering, the handling of stolen goods, etc.), the local authorities, backed up by hundreds of Gardaí, many in riot gear, closed off … Read more
Sir, —The Autumn issue of History Ireland has just come through the letterbox and I happen to have opened it on Áine Maire Chadwick’s letter on White Sorrel, the white horse so famously associated with King Billy. As your correspondent points out, this was not the horse ridden by William at the Battle of … Read more
Sir, —I am researching the story of fires, firefighting and firefighters in Cork city over the centuries, and I wonder if some among your readers may be able to help me over a few hurdles. During the greater part of the nineteenth century, private fire brigades known as ‘fire engine establishments’ were maintained by … Read more
Sir, —Thank you for the review of my book W.B. Yeats: Vain, Glorious, Lout. A Maker of Modern Ireland, by Derek Hand (HI 12.2, Summer 2004). If I might make a few points. I use the name ‘Willie’ for W.B. Yeats because that was how he was known by his family and friends. All … Read more
Sir, —Nowhere in the (fresh) outpouring of Bloomsdayana—not even Daniel Mulhall’s excellent article (HI 12.2, Summer 2004) on the Irish history that is embedded in Ulysses—is there any sign of Professor Davis’s important discovery, so perhaps a reminder is called for. Richard Davis’s masterful biography of William Smith O’Brien, Revolutionary Imperialist (1998), repeated what we … Read more