Joseph Plunkett was the primary planner of the Rising, and the objective was that the Volunteers and Citizen Army would seize strategic buildings throughout Dublin in order to cordon off the city and resist the coming attacks by units of the British army. The Volunteers’ plan had two elements: first, to prevent British access to … Read more
THE FEMINIST MOVEMENTS OF THE 1960S AND 1970S ELSEWHERE WERE IN ESSENCE MODERNISATION MOVEMENTS; IRELAND’S TIME-LINE WAS DIFFERENT. The feminist organisation of which I was a founding member in 1970 was called the ‘Irish Women’s Liberation Movement’ (IWLM). It is historically inappropriate to call it ‘the women’s movement’ as there were many different ‘women’s movements’, … Read more
‘To General Strickland, Victoria Barracks, Cork We are holding Mrs Lindsay and her chauffeur, James Clarke, prisoners. They have been convicted as spies and are under sentence of death. If the five of our men taken at Godfrey’s Cross are executed on Monday morning they will be shot immediately. I enclose a personal appeal from … Read more
‘If a police barracks is burned or if the barracks already occupied is not suitable, then the best house in the locality is to be commandeered, the occupants thrown into the gutter. Let them die there—the more the merrier. Should the order not be immediately obeyed, shoot and shoot with effect. If the persons approaching … Read more
IN DECEMBER 1914, THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT APPOINTED THE HISTORIAN, STATESMAN AND DIPLOMAT JAMES BRYCE TO INVESTIGATE GERMAN ATROCITIES IN BELGIUM. THE RESULTING REPORT REMAINS ONE OF THE MOST DIVISIVE DOCUMENTS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR. The report, or Blue Book, by the committee charged with investigating alleged German outrages is widely acknowledged as having been … Read more