SEPTEMBER Percy Jocelyn, disgraced bishop of Clogher (1820–2), died. Thanks to his family connections—his father was the first earl of Rodin—Jocelyn rose rapidly in the Church of Ireland despite a total disinterest in pastoral responsibilities such as taking services and preaching. His fellow clerics described him as the ‘most idle of all reverend idlers’. His … Read more
By Trevor White Everyone knows something about Brendan Bracken—and it’s usually wrong. He was not Winston Churchill’s son, as many people once thought. He was not Australian and he didn’t own the Financial Times, as someone recently claimed. The man himself is partly to blame for all this misinformation. Bracken was an extravagant fibber. He … Read more
HOW AND WHY CANADIANS CELEBRATE THE 150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE RAID ON RIDGEWAY By Daniel Panneton Celebrating historic losses on a national scale is a curious phenomenon. In an interesting parallel to the Easter Rising centenary commemorations in Ireland, this May and June Canadians recognised the 150th anniversary of the Fenian raid on Ridgeway. The … Read more
By Tony Canavan A different 1916 commemoration For Carlingford Lough this is the centenary of the collision of the steamships Connemara and Retriever with the loss of 97 lives on the stormy night of 3 November 1916. The Connemara was outbound from Greenore to Holyhead with passengers and livestock. The Retriever was inbound from Garston, … Read more