I can remember when the castle in Enniscorthy housed the unofficial Wexford county museum. It had all the attractions and flaws of a volunteer-run museum, with every room packed with exhibits, not always in the best of condition. In 2006 the castle was closed for major renovation. A radical decision was taken to concentrate on … Read more
Neil Jordan’s much-heralded family saga of Renaissance ambition, murder and debauchery has more to do with historical reputation than actual fact. However much scholarship proves the opposite, good stories never die. And, as so often, it’s the victors who tell them. When Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere finally succeeded as Pope Julius II in 1503, and … Read more
This is the 45th production of Juno and the Paycock at the Abbey, and this latest, directed by Howard Davies, is a joint venture with the National Theatre of Great Britain. It is appropriate that O’Casey should be the subject of such a collaboration given the circumstances of his own life. Although he made his … Read more
Groups of Irish nationalists, lighted torches in hand, stride forward and are joined by other Irish nationalists singing in unison about the virtues of ‘freedom’. The scene segues into black-and-white images of the sea hurtling into cliffs and the tide encroaching upon a beach, the ‘freedom’ chorus continuing. Yet the refrain is actually concerned with … Read more
The Irish Prison Registers 1790–1924, held at the National Archives of Ireland, are one of the greatest untapped resources for tracing Irish ancestors. They contain over 130,000 pages which include nearly three million records of imprisonment providing a wealth of information on each prisoner, including name, address, place of birth, occupation, religion, education, age, physical … Read more