In the Irish Free State, the land purchase annuities amounted to over £3m per annum, a substantial figure (given that the total revenue intake in the early 1930s was approximately £25m). The average burden of the annuities on the individual farmer was not huge—about 10% of net income—but it was a fixed amount, so the … Read more
Before 1951 only a few people in Ireland owned a TV set. There was no Irish television service and little prospect of one. Some owners were householders with the money to spend and a taste for the latest novelty. There were also some radio and electronics experimenters who built receivers from kits with military surplus … Read more
The year 1941 started ominously in Ireland with a number of bombings by German planes from 1 to 3 January, which many feared were a prelude to an invasion. When compared to what was happening in Britain the attacks were small, carried out by one or two planes; three people were killed in Borris, Co. … Read more
After five years of ’98 commemorations, actively militant opposition to the Boer War and the imminent passage of what was to become known as the Wyndham Land Act, unionists faced the prospect of two more potentially inflammatory commemorations: the centennial of Robert Emmet’s rebellion (23 July) and of his execution (20 September). In the eyes … Read more
Following the defeat of Gladstone’s first Home Rule bill in June 1886, some of Charles Stewart Parnell’s lieutenants decided to raise morale and lower rents by renewing the land war that had caused so much havoc and fear since the founding of the Irish National Land League in October 1879. Although Parnell opposed this new … Read more