September 1 Mon 8pm Celbridge Historical Society, Celbridge Library. The quiet quarterback—Protestants and the GAA, Ida Milne. 6 Sat 11.30pm Bray Cualann Historical Society, Ballywaltrim Library, Boghall Road. County Wicklow’s reaction to the outbreak of World War I, James Scannell. 8 Mon 7.30pm Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 63 Merrion Square S. Helen Roe … Read more
‘The only consideration which activated the minds of the Unionist powers . . . was that two-thirds of the population of Londonderry were Catholics. They sited the university in the heart of Coleraine . . . [a] unionist-dominated area.’ This assertion in Gerry Fitt’s maiden speech at Westminster in 1966 is still widely believed, but … Read more
In September 1949 Dr Wenceslao Oliveros arrived in Ireland on a scientific mission to visit UCD and its president, Michael Tierney. Richard Mulcahy, minister for education in the first interparty government, had been in correspondence with his Spanish colleague, José Ibáñez Martín, and had approved the trip, despite Oliveros’s acquired reputation. Dublin welcomed the arrival … Read more
Records of the Poor Law Unions, 1840s–1924 From the early 1840s until 1924, approximately half of all destitute children in Ireland were accommodated in the workhouse system. Unfortunately, there is a huge variation in the rate of survival of Indoor Relief registers that record admissions, for all Poor Law Unions. The late Dr Chris O’Mahony … Read more
Seventy-plus years ago—February 1944—and it is at last clear that the Allies are going to win the Second World War (1939–45). In Eastern Europe, the Red Army’s march west is gathering pace. In Italy, the Allied offensive at Monte Cassino is under way. And in Northern Ireland, in anticipation of D-Day, the number of British … Read more