‘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
Collon Church is a prominent landmark that dominates the southern approach to the village. Commissioned by Speaker John Foster (1740–1828) of Collon House and designed by the talented amateur architect Revd Daniel Augustus Beaufort (1739–1821), the church is in the Perpendicular Gothic style and appears to have been modelled on the chapel of King’s College, … Read more
A SUBJECT OF MUCH DEBATE AMONG HISTORIANS OF IRISH SPORT The inaugural meeting of the GAA, on Saturday 1 November 1884, at Lizzie J. Hayes’s Commercial Hotel on Main Street, Thurles, has been the subject of much debate among historians of Irish sport. Apart from the date and venue, they have agreed on little else. … Read more
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