A newly digitalised collection of 50-odd interviews with Ulster veterans of the Irish Volunteers and pre-Truce IRA, carried out by Fr Louis O’Kane some 50 years later, provides the inspiration for a one-day conference in Armagh in November 2015—‘Reflections on the Revolution in Ulster: the Irish Volunteer movement in the North, 1913–23’. Northern participants’ reluctance … Read more
Clery’s department store is an iconic Dublin business, famed for having risen from the ashes of 1916, its clock the meeting point for generations of courting couples. This and its stately building give it the impression of permanence and stability, but in fact in its 162-year history Clery’s has experienced three changes of name, multiple … Read more
SEPTEMBER 01/1715 Louis XIV of France, known as the ‘Sun King’, died in Versailles, after reigning for just over 72 years—the longest reign in European history. 01/1975 The IRA killed five Orangemen and wounded a further twelve in an attack on Tullyvallen Orange Hall, Newtownhamilton, south Armagh. 02/1865 Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Ireland’s most distinguished … Read more
Henry VIII was a fat, adulterous heretic! I can now say that without fear of prosecution because the centuries-old law protecting that king, along with almost 6,000 other laws, has finally been repealed as part of a tidying-up exercise. This is the second time, the last being in 2005, that the Oireachtas has passed an … Read more
While on a recent holiday to Krakow, Poland, I took the opportunity to visit nearby Auschwitz, where at least 1.1 million people were exterminated by the Nazis, 90% of them Jews. No matter how familiar you are with the background to the ‘Final Solution’, nothing prepares you for the reality on the ground. The claustrophobia … Read more