Muide Éire was a strikingly ambitious history of the depiction of Ireland and the Irish on both big and small screens, from The Quiet Man to The Late Late Show. Written by Ruth Lysaght and directed by Cathal Watters, the four episodes of the series eschewed a chronological narrative and, instead, picked out four themes … Read more
Irish history, as recent public controversies about republican violence during the War of Independence have made clear, remains an ideological minefield. Against this background, making a film about one of the most controversial republicans of the last century, Frank Ryan, presents obvious challenges. Before the first scene of The enigma of Frank Ryan had been … Read more
So who was ‘Britain’s greatest foe’? Step forward, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Michael Collins, Erwin Rommel, Napoleon Bonaparte and George Washington, who ended up top of an on-line poll conducted by London’s National Army Museum (http://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/enemy-commanders-britains-greatest-foes). By the time you read this, one of the five will have been selected at a ‘celebrity speaker event’ at … Read more
The ancient doctor Galen of Pergamum (modern-day Bergama in Turkey) has left us much to ponder, not only because of his own huge literary output (about 140 of his treatises survive) but also because of his many references to other titles and his eclectic style of writing. At times he is very precise and detailed; … Read more
‘Every new generation must rewrite history in its own way’, said the philosopher of history R.G. Collingwood, thereby encapsulating the belief that all history-writing is contingent upon generational concerns and values. Collingwood’s comment might be slightly revamped to address current commemorative anxieties: every new generation must commemorate history in its own way. But is it so … Read more