Farmleigh, the official Irish State Guest House, located in Phoenix Park, has several times been the subject of popular media articles and reports looking for a story of government waste. The house and its 78-acre lands were bought from the fourth earl of Iveagh in 1999 for €29.2 million. Many commentators at the time claimed … Read more
A tent in Laois is about as far removed as one can get from a traditional history conference venue, but it was at this year’s Electric Picnic in Stradbally that the History Ireland Hedge School series was launched. Presided over by ‘Master’ Tommy Graham, diverse audiences have attended a series of discussions on a range … Read more
During the Emergency (1939–45) the Irish Army lacked much of the essential equipment needed to defend Ireland, and naturally it was not possible to import armoured vehicles from abroad. To overcome this, Major J.V. Lawless of the Cavalry Corps designed a number of armoured cars based on various truck chassis that were then built in … Read more
The Congo—later known as Zaire, but now officially the Democratic Republic of the Congo—was colonised from 1878 at the personal behest of King Leopold of Belgium. By the early twentieth century, reports—including one by Roger Casement, then a British diplomat and later a key figure in the 1916 Rising—exposed the savage exploitation of its people … Read more
Kilmainham Gaol, now long established as a national monument, is a unique resource in the study of Irish history. Every year many thousands of visitors make their way there, most often as a result of the effusive recommendation of inhabitants of the capital city, to absorb something of Irish social, penal and political history in … Read more