According to Teagasc, a French field is likely, on average, to change hands once every 70 years. But this will only happen to an Irish field once every 555 years. It is an extraordinary statistic, one on which this assured and elegant documentary ultimately rested. Directed with great skill by the veteran Seán Ó Mordha, … Read more
Of three major productions shown in Ireland this spring, The Big Fellah is the most obvious one to review for History Ireland but not necessarily the best. The historical and contemporary resonances of the recent production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible at the Lyric, Belfast, show the power of theatre to reflect society through the … Read more
In the first wave of independence during the late 1950s and early 1960s, most sub-Saharan African states were expected to follow the modernising road, both by the departing colonial administrators and by the incoming African rulers. Africans would build legal-rational states underpinned by a newly emerging African nationalism. Modernity offered sub-Saharan Africa the chance to … Read more
Happy birthday, Italy! Or maybe not. Italy officially celebrates 150 years of unification but it seems that not everyone is happy. Yes, it’s those Northerners causing trouble again. The Northern League protests that the hard-working, industrialised part of the country (sound familiar?) is carrying the backward, rural south on its shoulders. To make matters worse, … Read more
We have an ordinary index card, 6in. by 4in., brown and fragile with age; a rough photograph, cropped from something larger; a description, not very accurate; and a typed legend of remarks, intended, perhaps, to be helpful but of questionable value. The card was found in an old book, a 1926 edition of Michael Collins … Read more