November 7 1910 Leo Tolstoy (82), Russian novelist, author notably of War and Peace (1863–9) and Anna Karenina (1874–6), died of pneumonia in a siding at Astapovo railway station. 8 1960 Nine Irish soldiers from an eleven-man patrol of the 33rd Battalion serving as a peacekeeping force with the UN in the Congo were killed … Read more
Crises can be seen in three separate but overlapping contexts: economic fluctuations (see sidebar opposite), banking and the international context. Before 2008, the role of banks was a major issue in the US from 1929 and more briefly in 1931 in central Europe. If we seek to trace the history of bank failure in Ireland, its modest … Read more
In a previous editorial (HI 18.3, May/June 2010) I expressed the hope that once we quantified the scale of our current fiscal difficulties the only way to go was up. Well, now we know—c. €50 billion to bail out the banks and cuts of c. €15 billion in government spending over the next four years—and … Read more
Sir,—Tom Mahon’s article on the visit of Kerry’s football team to America in 1927 (HI 18.5, Sept./Oct. 2010) was of great interest. I note that the final paragraph suggests that it was only in 1933 that another Kerry tour was proposed when ‘Connie Neenan wrote to Moss Twomey’. However, Kerry’s Football Story (copy in the … Read more
Sir,—I read with great interest Angus Mitchell’s article on Sir John Lavery’s High Treason (HI 18.5, Sept./Oct. 2010). The key to the painting identifies the solemn man seated next to Casement in the dock simply as ‘Dowling’. Who is this man? Certainly this is not the same Dowling of Casement’s Irish Brigade who landed in … Read more