Après le deluge . . . ? What next for the Catholic Church in Ireland, indeed for Irish society in general, in the wake of the publication of the Murphy report (November 2009) into clerical sexual abuse of children in the Dublin diocese? What started as a trickle of ‘isolated cases’ in the early 1990s … Read more
This year’s conference of the Irish History Students’ Association marks the 60th anniversary of the inaugural congress of the Irish Inter-Varsity History Students (as the association was then known), which took place at Newman House on 17 February 1950. Robert Dudley Edwards, Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD, was very much the moving spirit … Read more
The success of Thomas Spring Rice in the Limerick election of 1820 was due to the old style of electioneering, as well as to significant developments in the nature of Irish politics. On one level, constituencies continued to be fought over by wealthy, landed patrons, who deployed their money and influence to secure votes for … Read more
BLAND, Lilian Emily (1878–1971), pioneer aviatrix, was born on 28 September 1878 in Kent, youngest child among one son and two daughters of John Humphrey Bland (1828–1919) of Fernagh, Whiteabbey, Co. Antrim, and Emily Charlotte Bland (née Madden) of Norfolk, granddaughter of Robert Wintringham Bland (1794–1880), dean of Belfast. She was brought up by her … Read more
Grace Sweeney is getting ready to celebrate her 100th birthday on 15 December in her bungalow at Annagry in the Rosses in west Donegal. Born in 1909, she had a varied life. She went into service or, as they called it in Donegal, went ‘on hire’, working for neighbours until she was sixteen. Then she … Read more