Sir,—Your editorial (HI 21.2, March/April 2013) on Pope Benedict XVI was factually incorrect, unbalanced and more of an emotional rant than a reflective opinion piece. What evidence is there that Benedict XVI ‘carefully choreographed his elevation to the papacy in 2005’? Perhaps most surprising is your contention that the Normae de gravioribus delictis 2010 were … Read more
Brian Hanley asks whether commemoration of the Lockout means that awkward questions about class and power in Ireland are ignored. Over the weekend of 30–31 August 1913, a few days into what was to become a five-month-long lockout, the Dublin Metropolitan Police ran amok across inner-city Dublin, attacking strikers and their supporters. Two men died … Read more
The 1913 Lockout Tapestry is an ambitious, large-scale, collaborative visual arts project to commemorate the Dublin Lockout. During this epic struggle an estimated 100,000 people, one third of the capital’s inhabitants, faced starvation for five months in a battle for workers’ rights. The Lockout of 1913 is unique in the ‘decade of centenaries’ that we … Read more
Mary Harris was born in Cork in 1837 and baptised in the North Cathedral on 1 August 1837. (The baptismal font remains in use at the famous ‘North Chapel’ today.) Her parents were Ellen Cotter from Inchigeelagh and Richard Harris from Cork city. The Harris family, eventually consisting of five children, endured the Famine, which … Read more
JFK and Ireland In what may or may not be a coincidence, this year of ‘the Gathering’ coincides with the 50th anniversary of the official visit to Ireland of President John F. Kennedy. From a diplomatic point of view it was a triumph for the Irish state, breaching as it did the diplomatic isolation that … Read more