No matter how difficult life became, she never wavered in her belief that what she and her husband did to gain freedom for Ireland was their most important work. On 4 May 1916, responding to early reports of the executions of the Easter rebels, Mary Jane O’Donovan Rossa wrote to her daughter Daisy: ‘This week … Read more
A life devoted to the cause of Irish freedom, and a most opportune death. In 1856 Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa began a revolutionary career that would span nearly 60 years when he became a founding member of the Phoenix Society in West Cork. The founders of the Phoenix Society were concerned at the state of Ireland … Read more
Godwin’s letters have left us an eyewitness account of aspects of Irish social and political life at a critical moment in the country’s history. In June 1800 the Irish ‘patriot’ MP and barrister John Philpot Curran invited an English friend, the radical political philosopher and novelist William Godwin, to visit Ireland in the weeks before … Read more
Marginal notes on manuscripts shed light on the life of an Anglo-Norman lord and his relationship with his scribes. By Timothy O’Neill Night is falling on 21 December 1453, and in a castle in County Kilkenny a scribe peruses his manuscript. He writes a note about the heavy rain outside and his hope that his … Read more
In a rush of commemorative activity this summer, we have been enjoined to recall that Magna Carta (‘the Great Charter’)—whose 800th anniversary fell in June 2015—announced a fundamental principle of the rule of law: even sovereigns should be subject to the law of the land. Magna Carta is credited with being the first effective check … Read more