Not many years ago, a popular BBC television series succeeded in making its audience experience an emotion that few could have thought would arise out of one of the greatest tragedies of this century, the First World War. This was to laugh at the efforts of Captain Blackadder to escape the inexorable folly of the … Read more
To this day Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill remains an enigmatic figure who played his cards so close to his chest that his inner motives are still difficult to discern. Nevertheless an overall impression of what Ó Néill hoped to achieve in Ulster and Ireland in general can be gleaned from his writings and correspondence. In … Read more
‘Undeterred by the dread of infectious diseases, undismayed by degrees of filth, stench, and darkness inconceivable, by those who have not experienced them’, the Revd William Whitelaw and his assistants ‘explored, in the burning months of the summer of 1798, every room of these wretched habitations [of Dublin], from the cellar to the garret, and … Read more
James Connolly’s relationship with Catholicism has been much debated. During his lifetime he argued extensively (against both Catholic and socialist opponents) that there was not necessarily a conflict between Catholicism and socialism. While Connolly demolished the cruder assertions of his adversaries, commentators then and since have pointed out that he evaded some obvious difficulties, such … Read more
The Blueshirts are best remembered as Ireland’s fascists, and as such there has been a tendency not to examine the broader activities of the movement. Between the image of a non-constitutional army, and the highly important role the Blueshirts played in the formation of the entirely constitutional Fine Gael, historians have struggled to give the … Read more