At the time of writing there is still no word from Attorney General Máire Whelan on the modus operandi of Minister for Defence Alan Shatter’s recommendation that the c. 5,000 Irish soldiers who deserted the Irish Army during World War II be pardoned. She will need the wisdom of Solomon to make her decision. How, … Read more
Sir,—I am writing a biography of my great-uncle, Commandant Edward Daly of the Irish Volunteers. This is one of a series of biographies of the executed leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising planned for publication by O’Brien Press between 2012 and 2016. Aged 25 and unmarried, from Limerick, Edward Daly was one of the youngest … Read more
Sir,—May I congratulate Gerald Power for his absorbing article ‘Hidden in plain sight: the nobility of Tudor Ireland’ (HI 20.1, Jan./Feb. 2012). It is a shame that historians have tended to study the Irish aristocracy from either a narrow genealogical perspective—tracing bloodlines and who inherited what and when—or as participants, viewed en masse from afar, … Read more
Sir,—I found your article on the FCA (HI 19.4, July/August 2011) very interesting. I served in the FCA in Mullingar. We would spend almost an entire year training young men to be efficient gunners. We would then go to camp in the Glen of Imaal and give a good account of ourselves. The men would … Read more
Sir,—I refer to Jackie Giddings’s letter (Platform, HI 19.5, Sept./Oct. 2011) concerning difficulties she experienced in using genealogy centres and the response from Brian Donovan of Eneclann.Brian is correct in pointing to the lack of significant central funding of, and commitment to, local archives. It is important to state, however, that there are at present … Read more