St Gallen is a small city in the north-east of Switzerland with a 1,400-year-old history. Its surprisingly close link with Ireland, which has continued to the present day, dates back to 612, when an Irish monk named St Gall (var. Gallus, Gallen) established a hermit cell in the dense forest of the Steinach Valley. The … Read more
Sir,—I must mention one mistake in your otherwise excellent presentation of my article, ‘Labour in waiting: the after-effects of the Dublin Lockout’, in the last issue (HI 21.4, July/August 1913). In the photograph on p. 46 the man standing behind Constance Markievicz (in conversation with Cathal O’Shannon) is not James Connolly, as stated in the … Read more
Sir,—I have read with great interest Roger Stalley’s suggestion (HI 21.3, May/June 2013, ‘Iona, the Vikings and the making of the Book of Kells’) that the practice of exorcism may have been behind the repeated but careful stabbing of the figure of the Devil in the Book of Kells, folio 202v. Something else may also … Read more
Sir,—Gerard P. Montague rightly asserts (HI, May/June 2013, letters) that historical facts should form the basis for current discussion. Still, the facts must be correct. The ‘pro-life’ position of the Catholic Church is not that it is always evil to take a human life but rather that it is intrinsically evil to take an innocent … Read more
Sir,—As a practising historian I took Ruán O’Donnell’s advice in his opinion piece on the Boston College tapes (HI 21.3, May/June 2013) to ‘reflect on the integrity’ of our profession, in light of the recent legal action regarding the archival materials of Boston College’s ‘Belfast Project’. I view the integrity of the profession being challenged … Read more