In 1873 Thomas Clarke (born on the Isle of Wight, 11 March 1857) travelled to Dublin to be sworn into the IRB. After being sworn in, he went north to Dungannon, but the police got on his track and he eventually left for America in 1880. In the United States he was further inculcated with … Read more
This book promises to give the inside story of the Black and Tans and the Auxiliary Division of the RIC, based on the official records. Unfortunately, over-reliance on those records provides a stilted and incomplete portrait of ‘the most notorious police force in the history of the British Isles’, instead of a historical roller-coaster. The records … Read more
The focus of Edward Madigan’s book on the conduct of Anglican chaplains in the First World War is provided by something akin to a post-war literary consensus castigating army chaplains, and more specifically Church of England chaplains, for being ineffective at best, commanding little respect in the ranks, as having nothing more to offer than … Read more
Travel writings comprise a marvellous if problematic source for Irish scholars—especially for historians of pre-Famine Ireland. Arguably, these accounts can be grouped broadly into at least three categories. First are those, often written by foreign visitors, which focus on Irish poverty and ‘backwardness’, and frequently attribute them to English or landlord oppression. Historians sympathetic to … Read more
The wolf is as rich an image in literature as it is a reality—albeit a persecuted one—in natural history. Invariably featured as a menace in mythology and folklore, the wolf, demon or hero, is a strange and glamorous creature, the enigmatic ancestor of our domestic dog, and still roams Russian Asia, Canada and Alaska.Anyone with … Read more