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
Ouch, Mr Punch!Sir,–The last History Ireland (Spring 1994) contains many good things. Alas, the review of R.F. Foster’s Paddy and Mr Punch by Gerardine Meaney is not one of them. This isprecisely the kind of writing which will render your magazine completely unreadable outside any but the most narrow of academic circles. It is not simply a … Read more
Strokestown Famine MuseumOn 14 May the Famine Museum at Strokestown, County Roscommon, was opened by President Mary Robinson. This event was widely covered in the Irish and British press and was remarkable for both the President’s positive and moving speech, and the intrinsic importance of this project for understanding the Irish past and its modern … Read more