Sir,—Re joint remembrance of the 1916 Rising and the Battle of the Somme and the issue of imperial atrocities (Dr Tadhg Moloney, Letters, HI 23.3, May/June 2015). As late as the 1950s, thousands of Kenyan men were tortured, castrated with pliers or brutally flogged, sometimes to death, in British concentration camps in that country. As … Read more
Perspectives from an Irish comparative historian A minor controversy has broken out recently in the British historical world surrounding the establishment of a group called ‘Historians for Britain’ (HfB), which (in the context of the debate surrounding the UK’s place in the EU) believes that the time has come to recognise, or rather re-recognise, the … Read more
July 02/1815 The Salvation Army was founded, following a revival meeting held by William Booth in Whitechapel, London. 06/1815 Charles (Carlo) Bianconi, Italian businessman, started his first car service, between Clonmel and Cahir, Co. Tipperary, carrying six passengers at a return fare of 2d. 07/1865 Mary Surratt and three others were hanged for conspiracy to … Read more
Heritage Week, 22–30 August 2015 During this year’s Heritage Week (22–30 August) Ireland, along with twenty other countries across Europe, will be celebrating the European Year of Industrial Heritage. Upwards of 100,000 sites of industrial archaeological interest survive on this island, varying in size from small rural limekilns (probably the most common) to Ballincollig gunpowder … Read more
At a recent auction in London a set of the insignia of the Order of St Patrick, the British state order for Ireland, was sold for €29,800, well above the estimate. Originally the regalia of Lord Houghton when he was lord lieutenant of Ireland in the 1890s, the set consists of the star and badge … Read more