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
In 1843 Irish artist Joseph Patrick Haverty painted a scene from a ‘monster meeting’ at Clifden, Co. Galway. The meeting had been organised by the Loyal National Repeal Association and the painting consisted of a collection of mini-portraits of the leading members of the Association as they listened to Daniel O’Connell delivering a speech. Although … Read more
When the Franco-Prussian War (August 1870–February 1871) broke out, the UK (then including Ireland) was officially neutral. Count Otto von Bismarck, chancellor of Prussia, had goaded France into declaring war on 15 July 1870; two months later the French army, led by Marshall MacMahon (whose family came from County Limerick), and Emperor Napoleon surrendered after … Read more
Published in Boston in the summer of 1845, Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave caused an immediate sensation. Denounced as a ‘catalogue of lies’ by newspapers in the slavery-supporting South, it was praised in the North as the ‘most thrilling work which the American press has ever issued—and the most important’. … Read more
The French revolutionary government had launched two unsuccessful Irish invasions—in 1796 and 1798—believing that Britain’s naval superiority would be much reduced by the loss of Ireland. In 1803, following lobbying by Irish generals in the French army for the creation of a new Irish corps, Napoleon approved the formation of a light infantry battalion, La … Read more