For Irish people the archetype of a fortified religious building is best encapsulated by the spectacular Augustinian priory at Kells, Co. Kilkenny (Pl. 1), the more ruinous but equally emotive remains of the Augustinian house at Athassel, Co. Tipperary, with its impressive defended gatehouse, or the dramatic fortified ruins of Lindisfarne priory on the Northumbrian … Read more
‘Never make predictions . . . especially about the future’ By the time you read this, elections to the Northern Ireland assembly will have taken place and a power-sharing executive may (or may not) have been formed. My hunch is that it will, but in saying so I am conscious of the ghost of the … Read more
A chara, —Geraldine Plunkett Dillon’s memoir All in the blood, edited byHonor Ó Brolcháin and reviewed by Eoin Dillon in the Jan./Feb. 2007issue, is an important work. The book and subsequent publicityemphasised the republican aspects, but the Plunketts were not allradical nationalists. The family had divided loyalties, as detailed inmy Wigs and guns, Irish barristers … Read more
Sir, —I read with great interest the article by Alice McDermott and Mark Power on the 10th (Irish) Division in Salonica in 1915–17 (HI 14.6, Nov./Dec. 2006), and it is good to see recognition of Irish participation on this forgotten front of World War I. However, I do take issue with their assertion of an … Read more