REVISION: Casement tried and tested—the Giles Report on the Black Diaries

A VERBAL SMOKESCREEN OF AMBIGUITY, REPETITIONS, IRRELEVANT DATA, DECEPTIONS, OMISSIONS, EX CATHEDRA PRONOUNCEMENTS AND DISINFORMATION By Paul Hyde The results of the 1959 test cannot be found; the 1972 test was amateurish; the 1993 test was inconclusive. Then in 2002 the Giles Laboratory was commissioned by Professor W.J. McCormack to examine the controversial diaries and … Read more

JOURNALISM: Scandal and anti-Semitism in 1916: Thomas Dickson and The Eye-Opener

AMONG THE MOST INFAMOUS EVENTS OF THE EASTER RISING WAS A SERIES OF MURDERS COMMITTED BY CAPTAIN J.C. BOWEN-COLTHURST. HIS MOST FAMOUS VICTIM WAS FRANCIS SHEEHY-SKEFFINGTON, SUMMARILY EXECUTED ON THE MORNING OF 26 APRIL IN PORTOBELLO BARRACKS, ALONGSIDE TWO NEWSPAPER EDITORS, PATRICK MCINTYRE AND THOMAS DICKSON. BUT WHO WAS THOMAS DICKSON? By Conor Morrissey The … Read more

KINDRED LINES: Prison photographs

By Fiona Fitzsimons Irish prisons were some of the first to make a photographic record of inmates before they were legally required to do so under the Habitual Criminals Act of 1869.In Ireland the earliest known prisoner photographs were taken in August 1857 in Mountjoy Jail. Other Irish prisons followed suit: Londonderry in 1865, Enniskillen … Read more

NEW IN MANUSCRIPTS: A Kerry famine journal in Hawaii

THE LONELY PLANET GUIDE TO HAWAII RECOMMENDS A VISIT TO GREENWELL FARMS COFFEE PLANTATION AND THE ADJOINING ‘CLEVER MUSEUM’ CALLED H.N. GREENWELL STORE MUSEUM. VISITORS ARE SHOWN A TYPICAL GENERAL STORE OF THE 1890S, COMPLETE WITH GOODS AND EQUIPMENT FROM THE PERIOD. ANOTHER REASON TO VISIT IS TO CONSULT THE JOURNAL OF HENRY NICHOLAS GREENWELL, … Read more