Hidden History RTÉ1 Family Fortune: de Valera’s Irish Press, 2 Nov 2004 Directed by Gerry Nelson for Mint Productions Joe Cahill, IRA man, 7 Dec 2004 Directed by Jonathon Golden for DoubleBand Films by Eamon O’Flaherty RTÉ’s Hidden History series offered an impressive collection of documentaries before Christmas. The focus was heavily biographical—Women of the … Read more
ROCHE, ‘Tiger’ (c. 1739–79), adventurer and duellist, was born David Roche in Dublin, the youngest son of James Roche, a barrister. His father died when he was young, and his mother remarried and moved to England, leaving her son in Dublin. He spent the next few years as part of a notorious set of ‘bucks’ … Read more
Between 1893 and 1946 the Huguenot Society of London (now of Great Britain and Ireland) published what were then, and still are, the only extant records of the Huguenot community in Ireland. The records, published as part of the Society’s quarto series, were printed in small numbers and were originally produced for the Society’s members … Read more
Ukraine is derived from a word meaning ‘frontier’ or ‘borderland’. Its natives dislike the definite article that is usually placed in front of it—‘the Ukraine’—as this seems to suggest that it is not an entity of itself but merely the edge of other peoples’ territories. States, and much less nations, rarely possess natural frontiers or … Read more
When Louis XVI knew that he was to be executed he chose the son of an Irish country clergyman to give him spiritual comfort on the scaffold. The priest he chose, Henry Essex Edgeworth (1745–1807), came from a remarkable and gifted family. His forebears had acquired land in County Longford during the reign of Queen … Read more