A Chara,—Dermot McMonagle in his review of Ronan Fanning’s Fatal Path: British Government and Irish Revolution 1910–1922 (HI 21.6, Nov./Dec. 2013) correctly to my mind questions Fanning’s statement that Arthur Griffith showed weakness at the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. This is symptomatic of a wider tendency among some historians and commentators to criticise Griffith and praise … Read more
Sir,—Niall Meehan (HI 21.6, Nov./Dec. 2103, letters) takes me to task for unfairly contributing to the ‘denigration’ of republican revolutionaries, through the performance of a spoof ballad expressing sectarian attitudes as an introduction to my Parnell Lecture at Magdalene College, Cambridge, on ‘The Spectre of Ethnic Cleansing in Revolutionary Ireland’. As I wrote in response … Read more
In late September 2013 a number of flags appeared on the towers of the longest town walls in the Republic of Ireland. The flags carry the image of a typical seventeenth-century English gent, the tip of his sword to the ground, hand on hip, head turned, balanced neatly by the plume of his hat. The … Read more
www.decadeofcentenaries.com In late November the official ‘Decade of Centenaries’ website was launched—an initiative of the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, in association with History Ireland. Over the course of the next ten years, a wide range of centenaries are going to be marked, and the new website is intended to keep a record … Read more
January 1 1974 The power-sharing Northern Ireland executive, under Chief Executive Brian Faulkner, took up office. Three days later Faulkner was forced to resign as leader of the Official Unionist Party when the Ulster Unionist Council rejected the establishment of a Council of Ireland under the terms of the Sunningdale Agreement. 3 1864 John Hughes, … Read more