During Ireland’s ‘golden years’ at the United Nations in the late 1950s Dublin firmly supported decolonisation and the newly independent African states then joining the UN. Ireland prided itself upon never having sought to dominate another people for colonial greed. Yet a May 1938 letter from Joseph Walshe, contained in the recently published fifth volume … Read more
Bob Collis was the son of William, a lawyer who had been born without property, despite coming from a line of landed Anglo-Irish gentry and medical professionals, but who by stern economy had made enough money to purchase a sizeable portion of Killiney Hill, just south of Dublin. William Collis was a staunch exponent of … Read more
The sky did not fall. Following more than five years of planning and two years of teaching, the new Leaving Certificate history syllabus faced its first practical test in the examining session of summer 2006. And, despite the grumblings of indifferent sceptics and the dire warnings of its open opponents, nothing calamitous happened. There had … Read more
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Dublin Castle’s ‘Personalities Files’ span the emergence of Sinn Féin, the Easter Rising and the War of Independence, with the largest number relating to the period 1917–20. As might be expected, the documents provide a rich source of information on leading figures such as Michael Collins and Eamon de … Read more
The December election of 1910, which gave John Redmond’s Irish Parliamentary Party the balance of power, and the subsequent passing of the Parliament Act in 1911, which removed the House of Lords veto, made the prospect of Home Rule a very real possibility for Ireland. Like the rest of southern Ireland, Kildare awaited the imminent … Read more