March 14 1991 The Birmingham Six—John Walker, Paddy Hill, Hugh Callaghan, Richard McIlkenny, Gerry Hunter and Billy Power—were released after serving sixteen years in prison on fabricated evidence for the bombing of two public houses in Birmingham by the IRA in November 1974. 19 1921 The Crossbarry ambush in south-west Cork, one of the biggest … Read more
A recent visitor exposed to the apocalyptic reporting of the Irish economic crisis in the USA told me that he was surprised not to find tumbleweed on Grafton Street. How should we respond to this schadenfreude—with agreement? Rage? Squirming? Silence? The historian’s response has to be the long-standing one—the owl of Minerva flies at dusk: … Read more
By the time you read this we will have a new government, with Enda Kenny as taoiseach (Enda is taoiseach, isn’t he?). We may even have a single-party Fine Gael government, with or without the support of independents (and there are surely plenty of those in the new Dáil to choose from). In that scenario … Read more
Sir,—First of all may I compliment you on the excellent layout of my article on ‘Captain’ Boycott in your last issue (HI 19.1, Jan./Feb. 2011). The featured photo of Boycott’s house at Keem was provided by a student of the Achill Archaeological School, Connie Harrison, and she had requested that she be credited in the … Read more
Sir,—Fergus Whelan’s fascinating article on Cromwell and Irish republicanism (HI 18.6, Nov./Dec. 2010) brought to mind two interesting parallels between the Irish republicans of 1798 and the English republicans of a century and a half earlier. The Roundheads and Croppies both wore their hair short as a badge, and both Levellers and United Irishmen adopted … Read more