Volume 16 Archives - Page 21 of 40

‘Cuba, the Ireland of the West’: the Irish Daily Independent and Irish nationalist responses to the Spanish–American War

During the Cuban revolt of 1895–8, culminating in the Spanish–American War, the Parnellite party and their newspaper, the Irish Daily Independent, identified wholeheartedly with the Cubans, advocated American intervention and gave sustained support to the American war effort. This derived from the personal connections of some individuals associated with the Independent (including a wealthy American … Read more

Camila O’Gorman: a rose among the thorns

On the morning of 18 August 1848, in the town of Santos Lugares in the north-west of the Buenos Aires province, two figures sat side by side, tied to chairs and blindfolded in front of a firing squad. Death did not come instantly. The soldiers were nervous and failed to shoot straight, for they knew … Read more

Bernardo O’Higgins: rebel son of an Irish viceroy

In June 1823, six months after being ousted from government, Bernardo O’Higgins seriously thought about going into exile in Ireland. He had been under house arrest for six months at Valparaiso, Chile’s main port city, 60 miles west of Santiago, the capital. The new government had just given him permission to leave the country. He … Read more

‘Shipped for the Barbadoes’: Cromwell and Irish migration to the Caribbean

Between 1641 and 1653 Ireland suffered a demographic collapse of staggering proportions. Over a quarter of the population perished as a result of endemic warfare, famine and disease, including the last major outbreak of plague in the country. The architect of the English reconquest of the island, Oliver Cromwell, described Ireland as ‘a clean paper’, … Read more

The first potatoes

So unpalatable and poisonous is the original potato that anthropologists continue to puzzle over why anyone considered it a possible food in the first place. But over 8,000 years ago someone began experimenting with this unfriendly tuber (the potato is not a root at all but a tuber, a swollen underground stem). While various species … Read more