Carson’s role as the leader of Ulster unionism during the Home Rule crisis only served to accelerate an already rapid rise in British politics. The unity of Ulster unionism and the British Conservative Party before the Great War, as well as Carson’s control of the Ulster Volunteer Force—which ultimately converted into the 36th (Ulster) Division … Read more
Carson was a commanding parliamentary figure. His performances in the House of Commons are no longer appreciated as they once were, largely owing to a focus on contemporaries such as Lloyd George and Churchill, an emphasis on Carson’s more famous courtroom exploits (like those involving Oscar Wilde) and his wider role in Irish politics. Contemporaries … Read more
Along with her partner, Esther Roper, and fellow member of the Women’s Trade and Labour Council Sarah Dickenson, Eva Gore-Booth officially established the Barmaids’ Political Defence League in March 1908. The organisation was formed in direct response to the proposed introduction of clause 20 in the 1908 Licensing Bill. Gore-Booth claimed to represent the interests … Read more
The family of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, a child of the Anglican vicarage, was at the Ascendancy’s ideological cutting edge and part of its most vulnerable component: a state church imposed on a hostile nation. Born in 1814, he spent his first twelve years around the comparative safety and post-Napoleonic triumphalism of the Phoenix Park … Read more
Abraham (‘Bram’) Stoker was born in 1847, when Le Fanu was hoping to achieve an independent Ascendancy Irish parliament. He was a sickly child, nursed by his formidable mother, Charlotte Thornley Stoker (probably the inspiration for his heroine, Mina Harker). He survived to become a noted athlete at Trinity College. His father had been a … Read more