May 2 1982 The Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano was torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine Conqueror some 30 miles outside the 200-mile ‘exclusion zone’ that Britain had declared around the Falkland Islands. Some 260 crewmen perished. 7 1812 Robert Browning, English poet and playwright, born in Camberwell, London. 8 1987 Eight … Read more
Across 1 North Italian monastery founded by Columbanus in AD 614 (6). 5 English hospital notorious for the ill-treatment meted out to the mentally ill in the eighteenth century (6). 10 This bay was the location of the Sea Horse tragedy in 1816 (7). 11 Site of modernised Norman castle in County Meath associated with … Read more
In a debate in the late eighteenth century in the Irish House of Commons on the vote of a grant, which was recommended by the chancellor of the exchequer as one not likely to be felt burdensome for many years to come, opponents argued that the House had no right to load posterity with a … Read more
Sir,—A small correction to the article by Conor McNamara on British cabinet papers on-line (HI 20.2, March/April 2012, pp 40–1). Sir Rosslyn Wemyss was first sea lord, as stated, from December 1917 until the end of the war. He was not, however, commander-in-chief on the coast of Ireland. That position was held by Sir Lewis … Read more
Sir,—I wish to note a correction of an error in my book The Cosgrave Party: a history of Cumann na nGaedheal, 1923–33. In reference to Anthony Jordan’s W.T. Cosgrave, 1880–1965: founder of modern Ireland (Westport Books, 2006), line four of page 186 currently reads: ‘Anthony Jordan wrongly claims that Fianna Fáil won five seats. [footnote … Read more