It was the Stuarts who introduced the Irish to the slave trade. Charles II returned to the throne in 1660 at a time when it was becoming clear that sugar plantations were as valuable as gold-mines. The Royal Africa Company (RAC) was established to supply slaves to the British West Indies in order to extend … Read more
In March 1972 the British government abolished the unionist-dominated parliament at Stormont but subsequently found it extremely difficult to establish a new administration. The overall parameters of a political settlement (at least as far as the British government was concerned) were clear: a power-sharing administration for Northern Ireland with both unionist and nationalist political opinion … Read more
On 29 November 1853 John Mitchel arrived in New York City, having escaped from the penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land. He had been one of the most prominent and militant members of the Young Ireland movement, and had served five years of a 14-year sentence of transportation after being convicted of treason felony in … Read more
Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier was born in 1796 and sprang from a well-connected Banbridge family who first settled in County Down during the seventeenth century. His father, George Crozier, was a prominent solicitor who acted for the Downshires and Moiras, two of Ireland’s richest and most powerful landowners. Francis, one of thirteen children, was named … Read more
Much has appeared in the Irish media in recent months concerning the asylum granted to Axis collaborators and ‘war criminals’ in the years after 1945. The general tenor of this commentary has tended to increase the perception that Ireland’s attitude to these asylum-seekers was determined by pro-fascist or anti-Allied proclivities. On the other hand, if … Read more