Over the years some rigorous, if isolated, comparative studies on Ireland and India have been published. S.B. Cook’s Imperial affinities and Margaret Kelleher’s The feminisation of famine stand out. The last five years, however, have produced a flowering of scholarship examining Irish–Indian connections. Some of the stimulus came from the Fourth NUI Galway Conference on … Read more
All historical study is principally concerned with analysing the structures and processes of power. Maria Misra’s history is an eloquently spun meditation on the great shifts in political, religious, territorial and cultural control that have contributed to the emergence of modern India as an economic superpower. The first half of the book spans the rise … Read more
The story of how Chester Beatty came to bequeath his collection of oriental art to Ireland is quite well known by now. Although the American-born mining tycoon had some distant Irish ancestry, his decision to move to Dublin resulted from his dislike of the Labour government elected in Britain after World War II. He spent … Read more
Child clerical sexual abuse, denial and cover-up Sir,—I read your editorial (HI 18.3, May/June 2010) with concern because it is upsetting to think of anyone who is usually positive expressing such despair at aspects of present-day life in Ireland. But I have to disagree with your suggestions regarding denial and cover-up of the sexual abuse … Read more
July 17 1935 George William Russell, poet, editor, artist and mystic, known as ‘AE’, died. 18 1610 Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, belligerent Italian painter best remembered for the uncompromising realism of his religious works, died in mysterious circumstances. 21 1920 In Belfast, ‘Protestant and unionist’ workers from Workman Clark’s shipyard marched into … Read more