Clontarf 1014: Brian Boru and the battle for Dublin National Museum of Ireland Kildare Street, Dublin 2 www.museum.ie By Tony Canavan This major exhibition to mark the millennium of the Battle of Clontarf features artefacts, information panels, artist’s representations of the warriors involved, maps and so on. The artefacts and illustrations are divided thematically. A … Read more
Cluain Tarbh Abú Media, TG4, Good Friday (18 April) 2014 There is an unfortunate moment in the BBC/RTÉ co-production The story of Ireland (reviewed here in May/June 2011) when presenter Fergal Keane, whilst discussing Brian Boru, walks into Dublin City Hall, where ‘the legend of Brian is commemorated on the dome’. Keane stood, stared and … Read more
‘To music he was much addicted,’ Joseph C. Walker wrote of Brian Boru, in Historical memoirs of the Irish bards (1786). The ‘exquisite workmanship’ of Brian’s own harp was evidence of his fondness for music, Walker observed, but added a contradictory footnote: ‘The antiquity of this harp is certainly very high, but I cannot think … Read more
On 23 September 1978, the famous ‘Save Wood Quay’ protest march took place in Dublin city: c. 20,000 people took to the streets in an extraordinary show of public sentiment that is still firmly lodged in the collective memory today. At issue was the decision by Dublin Corporation (as it then was) to construct its … Read more
The Civic Offices are possibly the most controversial buildings erected in Dublin during the twentieth century—still referred to by many as ‘the bunkers’. A design competition was held and in 1968 it was announced that Stephenson Gibney Architects had won. As originally proposed, the scheme consisted of four concrete panel-clad towers with vertical window bays … Read more