1916

Coco Television/Keough Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame RTÉ1, February 2016 Briona Nic Dhiarmada, The 1916 Irish rebellion (Cork University Press, 216pp, €29.95 hb, ISBN 9781782051916). Foreword by Mary McAleese. By John Gibney 1916 is a major three-part documentary on the Easter Rising, drawing upon the considerable financial and academic resources of … Read more

Chernobyl: the response in Northern Ireland

THIRTY YEARS AGO A RADIOACTIVE PLUME CREATED BY THE CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT DRIFTED OVER EUROPE. FILES HELD IN THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE OF NORTHERN IRELAND ALLOW US SOME INSIGHTS INTO THE OFFICIAL RESPONSE NORTH OF THE BORDER. By Alan W. Robertson At 1am on 26 April 1986, Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power station in … Read more

KINDRED LINES

The Irish National Aid and Volunteer Dependants’ Fund By Fiona Fitzsimons The WO35 records featured in the previous issue tell the story of how the Irish population, initially hostile to the rebels in 1916, were alienated by the authorities’ heavy-handed response. The records of the Irish National Aid and Volunteer Dependants’ Fund (INAAVDF) complete the … Read more

A St John Ambulance man in 1916: Robert Leask’s diary

A CANDID, METICULOUS AND OCCASIONALLY HUMOROUS ACCOUNT OF EASTER WEEK By Anne Carey Following the 1916 Rising, Robert Leask, older brother of Dr Harold G. Leask, author of Irish castles and castellated houses (1941) and Inspector of National Monuments from 1922 to 1949, set down on paper a candid, meticulous and occasionally humorous account of … Read more