Sir,—I wish to respond to your comment on the Vatican in your last editorial (HI 18.5, Sept./Oct. 2010), beginning with the implicit criticism of it for being secular and institutional, and for exercising temporal powers. It is essential for it to be all three of those things, since it exists in the temporal world as … Read more
Sir,—In her article ‘A dynamic Irishman in Paris: Patrick d’Arcy, 1725–79’ (HI 18.2, March/April 2010), Mary Stratton Ryan quotes an 1845 article from the Freeman’s Journal to the effect that ‘A mason employed at the ancient chapel of St Philip du Roule has discovered a leaden coffin of ancient form [inscribed with the name of … Read more
Sir,—Niall Ó Dochartaigh’s excellent article (HI 18.5, Sept./Oct. 2010) reminds us that while the Saville Report is clear on the detail of what happened on Bloody Sunday it does not leave us much wiser about the reasons. Ó Dochartaigh emphasises General Ford’s plan to reverse the policy of restraint, which had previously been implemented by … Read more
McGINTY, Thom (‘The Diceman’) (1952–95), street performer, was born in Strathclyde, Scotland, one of two sons and two daughters of Thomas McGinty and Mary McGinty, a native of County Dublin. After training in Glasgow in theatre and as an artist’s model, he moved to Dublin in 1976, supporting himself with modelling work in the National … Read more
Do we need another book on the Easter Rising? There can be no harm in a good one. And Fearghal McGarry has written a very good one indeed. What makes The Rising stand out from its competitors (at least according to the blurb) is that it uses the vast corpus of testimonies collected by the … Read more