Sir,—In your last edition (HI 19.4, July/August 2011), Tony Canavan’s ‘Sidelines’ quoted the people of Belfast as declaring that the Titanic had been ‘in perfect condition when it left us’. This may be correct for the workers but not for the designers. Instead of iron, the Titanic was built of steel, which is much tougher … Read more
Sir,—I read Terence O’Reilly’s article (HI 19.4, July/August 2011) with interest, as I’m sure did many readers who had served in the FCA, for over the years it gave scores of thousands of citizens either their only taste of soldiering or the basis for their professional careers. It’s true that the Defence Forces were underfunded, … Read more
Inghinidhe na hÉireann/Daughters of Ireland was founded by Maud Gonne MacBride in 1900. Ironically, in view of later events, the organisational meeting took place at Easter 1900.The organisation was solely for women and adopted St Brigid as patron. Its agenda was political, social and feminist: it opposed the Irish Parliamentary Party and Home Rule, opting … Read more
Marie Bourke is to be congratulated for writing a comprehensible and detailed account of museums in Ireland, as it is a complicated story. For most of the period under discussion Ireland was not an independent country, so it could not rely on a royal patron to found institutions, as was the case in many European … Read more
The historiography of Irish republicanism has greatly improved in recent years thanks to authors such as Brian Hanley, Richard English and Martyn Frampton. This book, Matt Treacy’s first, adds significantly to this growing body of work, charting the internal debates and developments within the IRA and Sinn Féin from the collapse of the ill-fated border … Read more