The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (some of whose ‘buildings of the month’ have been featured in our regular ‘Gems of Architecture’ slot) was awarded a prize in the research category of the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage/Europa Nostra Awards. The prize was launched jointly by the European Commission and Europa Nostra in 2002 … Read more
In 2008 Comhaltas Ceoltoirí Éireann applied for planning permission to Cashel town council to enhance their local Brú Boru heritage centre at the foot of the Rock of Cashel. The Development Applications Unit of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government wrote to Cashel town council on 24 June 2008, seeking further information … Read more
It is arguable that the eventual decision to send in the troops while leaving the Stormont regime intact was the greatest mistake of British policy during the Troubles. It is clear that this decision was not taken casually or lightly, yet the fact remains that the government’s strategy allowed it to garner the worst of … Read more
‘I knew Lynch very well because he had been minister for finance when I had been chancellor. For years before I knew him and thought him to be a very sensible man, and when he said he was going to put hospital beds on the borders, I thought “How absurd! What’s gone wrong with you?” … Read more
Contrary to a widespread impression, the British political élite actually had a reasonable degree of acquaintance with Northern Ireland, and Ireland as a whole, before the Troubles broke out. (Denis Healey’s grandfather, born in Enniskillen, was a Fenian, and his father retained a strong enough sense of Irishness to heckle ‘What about Ireland, Major Healey?’ … Read more