Last November the Irish Times published a highly disingenuous article by the DUP’s Mervyn Storey implying that the schoolchildren of Northern Ireland were being subjected to the ‘insidious indoctrination’ of ‘Darwinian evolutionists’, despite the fact that there were ‘huge swaths of scientific data that point in another direction’ (Irish Times, 3 November 2008). Storey did … Read more
The most potent and enduring weapon in the armoury of any true revolutionary is the written word. From this, the spirit, memory and reputation of Ernesto de la Serna ‘Che’ Guevara (1928–67) live on. During a life committed to the fight against injustice and oppression—living in damp, humid forests, marching across rugged sierras in between … Read more
COLLINS, Jerome Janus (1841–81), meteorologist, Arctic explorer and founder of Clan na Gael, was born on 17 October 1841 in Cork city, the son of Mark Collins, a lime- and saltworks owner of South Main Street, Cork, and his wife Ellen (née Ryan). He attended St Vincent’s Seminary, Cork, before becoming a civil engineer. He … Read more
Edward Lear is best remembered today for his humorous verses—he first popularised the limerick—which he called his ‘Nonsenses’. This exhibition concentrates on Lear’s early career as a landscape draughtsman up to his departure from England in 1837; it covers his tours in Ireland in August 1835 and in northern Lancashire and the Lake District from … Read more
Handball is known to have been played in Ireland from at least the mid-1500s. Its origins are likely shared with the contemporaneous games of real or royal tennis, palla, pelota and Eton fives. While royal tennis was played in purpose-built courts from the early 1500s, handball, like pelota (Basque region) and palla (Tuscany), was predominantly … Read more