If only Ulster unionists had accepted Home Rule; if only Home Rulers had accepted partition in 1912 before the Ulster Volunteer Force was formed; if only the Curragh Mutiny hadn’t happened; if only Britain had not declared war on Germany in August 1914; if only the war had finished as early as widely expected, with … Read more
Seán McLoughlin was born in Dublin on 2 June 1895, the second child of six eventually born to ITGWU activist Patrick McLoughlin and his wife Christina. Involvement in Irish nationalist activity began early. Aged fifteen, McLoughlin joined both the Gaelic League and Fianna Éireann. Like many Fianna members, he became involved in the Irish Republican … Read more
As soon as the Great War broke out in August 1914, members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), operating as a secret caucus within the Irish Volunteers, began to plan a rebellion against British rule in Ireland. Operating on the old IRB maxim that ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity’, they planned for a countrywide rebellion. … Read more
From the founding of the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) to Easter Week 1916 can be described as the organisation’s heroic period. It would survive the Rising by a further twenty years: until the Civil War in form and occasional actions and campaigns, then in suspended animation until 1934, and reviving for one more year before … Read more
Sir, —The editors of the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of IrishBiography hope that readers of History Ireland have enjoyed the seriesof articles entitled ‘From the files of the DIB’. We would like toacknowledge that the main source used for the article on Pádraig ÓDuinnín in the Nov./Dec. 2005 issue was Proinsias Ó Conluain agusDonncha Ó … Read more