Recent election results, both here and across the water, call to mind the apocryphal Chinese curse. Apart from the usual anomaly of the British electoral system’s ability to deliver decisive parliamentary majorities on a minority of the popular vote (less than 37% for the Conservatives in this case), the big story was the almost clean … Read more
July 4 Sat 3pm National Gallery of Ireland, Clare Street, Dublin 2. Irish artists in France, 1860–1915. 8 Wed 1pm National Gallery of Ireland, Clare Street, Dublin 2. Depictions of the west of Ireland. 9 Thur 1pm National Gallery of Ireland, Clare Street, Dublin 2. The art of Jack B. Yeats. 10 Fri 1pm National … Read more
Since the middle of the nineteenth century there have been two universities in Dublin—Trinity College and the Catholic (later, from 1908, National) University—and so it is not surprising that a rivalry developed between them. In Dublin on 11 November 1919 the first anniversary of the Armistice was widely commemorated. Trinity students gathered outside the gates … Read more
Writing in the 1960s, F.S.L. Lyons compared the unionist reaction to the establishment of the Irish Free State to the dog in the night in the Sherlock Holmes story, its significance being that it didn’t bark. ‘Broadly speaking,’ Lyons concludes, ‘one may say of the ex-unionist or loyalist minority that the most important thing about … Read more
The popularity and success of Fordson FC signalled a shift in the place of soccer within Irish society. When the Ford Marina plant opened in Cork in 1917, those who started work there would probably not have believed that within a few short years a soccer team from the factory would not only win the … Read more