Among the audience at the screening were a spattering of men, now in their sixties and early seventies, many accompanied by family members, who were there to see a film version of events in which they had participated 50 years previously. They did not have the appearance of battle-hardened veterans; rather they were slightly older, … Read more
Some months ago Taoiseach Enda Kenny declared before President Obama and the world that the real wealth of Ireland was our history, our island story passed on from one generation to the next. It has sustained us in the past and will carry us on into a more prosperous future. And yet it is his government … Read more
Across 8 The Muse of history (4) 9 Alternative name for Rameses the Great, pharaoh of the nineteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt, celebrated in a famous poem by Shelley (10) 10 The capital city of this African state was founded by the Portuguese explorer Paulo Dias de Novais in 1575 (6) 11 Where the beaches … Read more
November 4 2001 The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) following a ten-year reform plan for policing set up under the terms of the Belfast Agreement (1998). 10 1861 The remains of Terence Bellew McManus, which had lain in state at the Mechanics’ Institute for a … Read more
At the risk of having a ‘Dewey defeats Truman’ moment, am I right in assuming that by the time you read this Michael D. Higgins will have been elected ninth Uachtarán na hÉireann? Regardless of the result, it has been an interesting campaign and, in spite of criticism of the candidate selection process, no one … Read more