Across 1 Spanish galleon that ran aground off Lacada Point, Co. Antrim, in 1588 (6). 5 Fanny ———, Russian political revolutionary and an attempted assassin of Vladimir Lenin (6). 10 He was the last Anglo-Saxon archbishop of Canterbury (7). 11 Operation Rolling ———-, name given to sustained United States aerial bombardment campaign during the Vietnam … Read more
The empty seats in the RDS at the opening of the recent (50th) Eucharist Congress, and the c. 50,000 hardy souls who attended the closing ceremony at Croke Park, stood in marked contrast to the million-plus who participated in the 31st in glorious sunshine in 1932. Looking back, we can now see that this marked … Read more
Sir—In articles published in History Ireland and History, I recently drew attention to the late Peter Hart’s presentation of an unambiguous sectarian explanation for the so-called ‘Bandon Valley massacre’ of late April 1922. In a public lecture given in Cork, and coinciding with the massacre’s 90th anniversary, Dr Andy Bielenberg argued for the impossibility of … Read more
In January 1914 James Nowlan, president of the GAA, advised every member to join the Irish Volunteers and ‘learn to shoot straight’. Nowlan took his own advice and, as a member of the Volunteers, was imprisoned in Frongoch internment camp following the Easter Rising. As a prisoner, he was among many who engaged in sporting … Read more
In the historiography of the Irish revolution, the idea that is often conveyed is that the violence was confined to a few areas: Dublin at the epicentre, with periodic eruptions in Belfast and the province of Munster in almost constant turmoil. In recent years, however, books that attempt to balance the picture have started to … Read more