Sir,—I recently purchased the special issue of History Ireland, which featured some very interesting articles on the 1913 Lockout. I thought your readers might be interested in the story of James Byrne, a somewhat forgotten figure from Dún Laoghaire (then Kingstown), who died as a result of a hunger strike he embarked upon while in … Read more
Sir,—I wish to congratulate History Ireland for its stellar special issue on the 1913 Lockout. The high quality of articles represents an admirable and appropriate tribute to the labour events of 1913, despite the reluctance of some in 2013 to meaningfully consider the centennial. I wish to add a small note to Fearghal McGarry’s excellent … Read more
Sir,—I am writing to express my concern and shock at seeing my grandfather, Einhart Kawerau, listed in David O’Donoghue’s article ‘The Nazis in Irish universities’ (HI 15.5, Sept./Oct. 2007, pp 12–13; https://historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/the-nazis-in-irish-universities/). While Dr O’Donoghue limits himself to listing him as a German student in Ireland, his article implies that Einhart Kawerau participated in the … Read more
‘It rarely pays to get between a dog and a lamp-post’, remarked United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull on the virtues of neutrality. For Dante, ‘the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality’. Was Ireland right to stay neutral in the Second World … Read more
In January 2011, while working at the British National Archives at Kew, Dr Tom Truxes (Glucksman Ireland House and NYU) discovered a fragile, dusty collection of documents that had been seized aboard an Irish trading vessel in March 1757. A British privateer had intercepted the Two Sisters of Dublin on its return to Ireland from … Read more