Thousands of women working as prostitutes roamed the streets of the towns and cities of Ireland in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While there was a common belief that prostitution was an inevitable feature of life, especially where military garrisons existed, as long as prostitutes remained out of the public eye they were tolerated. … Read more
Sir, —I have a little footnote to add to your article on the Eucharistic Congress (HI 15.6, Nov./Dec. 2007). At the time, the country was in severe financial trouble and could not afford new tack for the Blue Hussars. My father, a tailor by trade, was commissioned to make many of the blue saddle-covers for … Read more
Sir, —The errors in Tony Canavan’s piece on the vandalised painting at Stormont (‘A papist painting for a Protestant parliament?’, HI 16.1, Jan./Feb. 2008) lead me to wonder whether he really researched the topic or rather acquired his information at second or third hand. The man who attacked the painting was Charles Forrester, not ‘Forster’. … Read more
Sir, —I think that Dr Hanley in his critique of the ‘Killings at Coolacrease’ programme protests too much when he writes that talk of ‘ethnic cleansing . . . should be banished from any serious discussions’ on what happened in Ireland in the 1920s. Some communities in the twentieth century leave their homeland when they … Read more
A Chara, —The last sentence of Michael Gibbons’s review of Dublin NaziNo. 1: the life of Adolf Mahr (HI 15.5, Sept./Oct. 2007) was notsupported by a reading of the book. Neither author nor reviewer gaveany reason to think that Mahr ‘failed . . . as a man’ (whatever thatmeans?). But as one who worked in … Read more