UK FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE OFFICIALS ATTEMPTED TO MAINTAIN COMMUNITY RELATIONS WITH BOTH PROTESTANTS AND CATHOLICS THROUGH THEIR RELIGIOUS LEADERS. By Maggie Scull The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) recently released their 1983 files to the National Archives in Kew, including one concerning church opinion in Northern Ireland on the Provisional IRA and the … Read more
In 1912 Monaghan Urban Council began to plan a scheme of artisans’ houses to be financed under the Housing of the Working Classes (Ireland) Act, 1908. This Act, designed principally to rid Irish cities of slum dwellings, allowed urban councils to access loans at reasonable rates. The military barracks on the northern outskirts of Monaghan … Read more
WHY THIS SMALL ISLAND HAS TWO INTERNATIONAL SOCCER TEAMS By Cormac Moore On 7 March 1921, the Protests and Appeals Committee of the Irish Football Association (IFA) met to schedule the replay of an Irish Cup semi-final tie between Dublin club Shelbourne and Lurgan club Glenavon. As the first match, which ended in a draw, … Read more
THE SINGLE GREATEST ACT OF VANDALISM OF THE IRISH WAR OF INDEPENDENCE By Pat Poland On 21 January 1919 the first Dáil was convened in the Mansion House in Dublin and the independence of the Irish Republic was declared; later the same day, the opening shots in, avant la lettre, the Irish War of Independence … Read more
Estate records as a source for family history By Fiona Fitzsimons In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries c. 95% of productive land in Ireland was in estate ownership. The number of families that owned these estates was tiny. They derived great authority and wealth through their monopoly on landownership. Every estate was organised and … Read more