It is now widely accepted that Theobald Wolfe Tone probably took his own life. Why, then, asks Georgina Laragy, was his reputation amongst his peers not damaged by the then criminal and immoral character of his death? Theobald Wolfe Tone’s place in the pantheon of Irish republican heroes has been secure since his death in … Read more
While the heroic, Roman, suicide was a popular literary and historical ‘type’ in the eighteenth century, Tone was equally familiar with another more ‘romantic’ type of suicide. This was epitomised by the publication of the semi-autobiographical The sorrows of young Werther by Johann von Goethe in 1774. A theatrical version of the novel was performed … Read more
The Remonstrance is preserved in manuscripts of Scotichronicon, a great survey of Scottish history that connects Ireland with Scotland’s struggle for independence. Scotichronicon also includes English and Scottish texts documenting the English crown’s attempt to create an insular empire. The text of the Remonstrance survives because of Scottish interest in its attack on English imperialism; … Read more
In Conquest of Ireland Gerald of Wales asserts the English crown’s ‘fivefold right’ to Ireland. (1) The Irish came from Spain, specifically the Basque country, and were given Ireland by Guirguntius, an ancient British king. (2) The Irish King Gillomar paid tribute to Arthur, ‘that famous king of Britain’. (3) English dominions now include Bayonne, … Read more
The English crown first intervened in Ireland in 1171. King Henry II came to curb the power of his Anglo-Norman subjects, who were seizing Irish territories for themselves; Diarmait MacMurchada had brought them here in the late 1160s to help him regain the kingship of Leinster. Henry also wished to impose his authority on the … Read more