The National Portrait Gallery in London is home to many thousands of portraits, photographs and sculptures of the great and the good, as well as those who travelled on the darker side of history. Earlier this year it hosted a small exhibition in the Porter Gallery called Between Worlds: Voyagers to Britain 1700–1850. The exhibition … Read more
On 14 August 2007 a Viking longboat arrived in Dublin amidst much fanfare. While this would have been fairly unremarkable during Dublin’s heyday as a Viking trading port, in 2007 the novelty of the event guaranteed crowds of onlookers, an army band, at least one overly enthusiastic traffic cop and numerous public representatives. The longboat … Read more
According to documents placed on the Department of the Environment website by the current minister, John Gormley, the Lismullen site is a circular enclosure 80m in diameter, formed of a double row of stake-holes, about 2m apart. Each stake-hole is about 10–15cm in diameter. The site was discovered as topsoil was being stripped as part … Read more
After the Phoenix Park murders in May 1882, Gladstone introduced a stringent crimes act and created at Dublin Castle what was intended to be a permanent secret service department: the Crime Special Branch, led by an ‘Assistant Under-Secretary for Police and Crime’. From July 1882 until January 1887 this position was occupied by Edward George … Read more
In the run-up to the soccer World Cup of 2002 the bust-up between Ireland manager Mick McCarthy and star player Roy Keane in Saipan caused a huge controversy and divided the nation. This was not the first time that the ‘beautiful game’ caused upheaval in Irish society. Back in the 1950s the ‘garrison town game’ … Read more