During the last years of the nineteenth century Craughwell was one of the most violent corners of Ireland, and several murders were committed by members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) as part of its struggle against local landlords to create a better life for the poor small farmers and labourers of the region. Tom … Read more
Francis Hutchinson was no ordinary clergyman. Posterity chiefly remembers him for his condemnation of witchcraft trials in his famous book An historical essay concerning witchcraft . . . (1718). He was one of the first members of the Dublin Society for the Improvement of Husbandry and Other Useful Arts, however, and wrote extensively on social … Read more
As the loyalist murals of Belfast’s Shankill Road and the jerseys worn by Tyrone’s Gaelic footballers show, claims to the Red Hand of Ulster have been contested for centuries. From the earliest times, personal emblems have been used to identify prominent people and their descendants. The lasting use of such symbols extended to civil purposes … Read more
Brigid, goddess and saint, the second most important Irish saint after Patrick, is well known not only in Ireland but also in many other parts of the world. Thousands of books and articles have been written about this influential figure since the first by Cogitosus c. AD 650. Yet some historians have claimed she did … Read more
Academics these days are encouraged to venture outside their limited ‘knowledge community’ (‘the ivory tower’) and engage more with the general public, presenting research findings to wider audiences, increasing participation and promoting ‘lifelong learning’. They must also attract outside funding for their universities to finance networks of the type discussed here, but funding is increasingly … Read more