AMONG THE TEN PROFESSIONAL AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES ASCRIBED TO WILLIAM WILDE ON HIS MEMORIAL PLAQUE AT 1 MERRION SQUARE, DUBLIN, IS ‘HISTORIAN’. William Wilde’s Celticism, his archaeological, antiquarian and topographic interests, and his knowledge of folklore and language informed his work as a historian. Wilde appears to have distanced himself from Ireland’s contentious political history, … Read more
TWO VERY DIFFERENT IRISHMEN WHO GOVERNED MAURITIUS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Ireland has an extraordinary connection with the small multi-ethnic island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. There are Mauritians here, some permanent residents, many others studying law and medicine. The outgoing prime minister, Dr Navin Ramgoolam, and his minister for foreign affairs, Dr Arvin … Read more
‘ONE SMALL SCRATCH FOR A MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MATHEMATICS’ On a bright Monday morning, on 16 October 1843, the world of mathematics was changed forever. William Rowan Hamilton was walking along the banks of the Royal Canal in Dublin with his wife, Helen. As he passed Broombridge in Cabra, he had a flash … Read more
Thousands of years before global giants like Apple and Amazon introduced them to the mass market as a technological breakthrough, the humble tablet was already being used in ancient Mesopotamia. The process of marking or inscribing clay tablets with characters, constituting an early form of writing, dates back to the fourth millennium BC. Several Irish … Read more
At eleven sharp on the morning of 12 March 1798, a force of thirteen sergeants and a servant, under the command of Justice of the Peace William Swan, descended on the house of Oliver Bond, a wealthy cloth merchant, on Bridge Street in Dublin. Disguised in their street clothes and supplied with the secret password, … Read more