In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fake ‘native’ villages—often African but also sometimes Far Eastern—were hugely popular attractions throughout Europe and America at great exhibitions or fairs. They typically took the form of village buildings complete with ‘villagers’ who lived on the site, and metropolitan audiences could wander around watching the ‘villagers’ go … Read more
Thomas Kearney’s 1817 map of the Levinge estate in Knockdrin, Co. Westmeath, is a particularly fine example of an early nineteenth-century survey of an improving landlord’s estate during the twilight era of landlord paternalism in Ireland. So-called ‘improving landlords’ were committed to implementing the latest scientific developments to modernise their estates in terms of animal … Read more
Charter schools were intended to solve the problem facing a victorious people taking over a defeated, impoverished country from the 1690s onwards. With almost a quarter of the Irish population killed or exiled, the rest were needed as a labour force for the new masters of the land. Yet how was it possible to trust … Read more
St Mary’s Square was designed by the notable architect A.W.N. Pugin in the 1840s at the height of the ‘Gothic Revival’, extending west of St Joseph’s Square to what is now the south campus of NUI Maynooth. Owing to the limited grant of £30,000 for its construction, Pugin agreed to omit designs for the chapel, … Read more
In his 1911 Labour in Irish history, James Connolly dismissed King James II as ‘the most worthless representative of the most worthless race ever to sit on a throne’. Many Stuart candidates could claim this unflattering accolade during their 500-year stewardship of Scotland and 85-year reign over the three kingdoms. Their bloodied history comprises a … Read more