In the middle of the night, on 1 June 1866, nearly 1,000 Fenians crossed the Niagara River from Buffalo, New York. The vanguard, Colonel Owen Starr’s Seventeenth Regiment from Louisville, Kentucky, seized control of the village of Fort Erie, cut the telegraph wires and established a bridgehead. On the following day the Fenian army, commanded … Read more
The noted linguist, Celtic studies expert and Nazi propagandist Dr Hans Hartmann has been enjoying something of a revival recently. First he had a starring role, albeit dramatised, in Desmond Bell’s film The enigma of Frank Ryan. This depicted Hartmann interviewing Ryan about his IRA role in wartime Berlin, something that never actually happened, although … Read more
Set in the small market town of Bantry, surrounded by one of the spate rivers that drain from the Knocknaveagh range to the south, is one of Ireland’s most unusual examples of Modernist architecture. Bantry Library was designed in 1962 by the Cork County Council architect Patrick McSweeney, and the project was developed and overseen … Read more
‘The Wild Geese’ is the romantic term traditionally applied to the men who left Ireland to join the armies of European countries. Beginning in the sixteenth century, large numbers of Irishmen enlisted in the armies of Spain, France, Austria and Russia. Many soldiers hoped eventually to return to Ireland and throw off foreign rule. This … Read more
It is a tragic irony that in Ireland’s fight for independence and a new beginning in 1922 we also lost the vast majority of our historical records dating back to the Middle Ages. From one of the richest holdings of medieval and early modern manuscripts in Europe, Ireland now has the misfortune of possessing one … Read more