Issue 1 (January/February 2016)

First of the small nations. The beginnings of Irish foreign policy in the interwar years, 1919–1932

GERARD KEOWN Oxford University Press £65 ISBN 9780198745129 Reviewed by: Michael Kennedy There are two central themes running through this accessible, elegant andauthoritative account of early Irish foreign policy. Firstly, that the ambitious rhetoric of pre-1922 Irish nationalists to develop an international and geopolitical rationale for Irish independence was not always matched by the foreign … Read more

On this Day

January 03/1946 William Joyce (39), Nazi propagandist known as ‘Lord Haw-Haw’, was hanged for treason in Wandsworth Jail. 05/1976 John A. Costello (84), barrister, attorney general of Ireland (1926–32) and taoiseach (1948–51, 1954–7), died. 06/1066 Harold II (Godwinson) was crowned king of England in succession to Edward the Confessor. He was the last Anglo-Saxon king … Read more

History v. commemoration?

In this issue’s Platform (pp 10–11) Felix M. Larkin rightly takes successive governments to task for their philistine neglect of our national cultural institutions, and of the National Library in particular. Does he perhaps let righteous indignation get the better of him, however, in contrasting this niggardly approach with ‘the lavish spending of the Easter … Read more

Events

JANUARY 08 Fri 8pm Military History Society of Ireland, Griffith College, South Circular Road, Dublin 8. Robert the Bruce’s Irish wars, Seán Duffy. 11 Mon 8pm Galway Archaeological & Historical Society, Harbour Hotel, Dock Road. Galway in 1916—a pictorial review, Paul Duffy + AGM. 12 Tues 8.15pm Skerries Historical Society, Keane’s Lounge, The Bus Bar, … Read more

Connolly’s ‘kidnapping’

By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr Surrey House on Leinster Road was the home of Countess Markievicz. It was also where James Connolly’s The Spark and the Workers’ Republic were printed. In the 22 January 1916 issue of the Workers’ Republic, the following appeared under the heading ‘What is Our Programme?’: ‘We shall continue, in season … Read more