THE AUTHOR AND DERIVATION OF THE MOST WIDELY KNOWN SONG ABOUT IRELAND’S MOST MONUMENTAL CATASTROPHE HAVE REMAINED OBSCURE ALMOST SINCE ITS COMPOSITION By Dan Milner The first verse of the ballad ‘Old Skibbereen’ tells us that it was composed outside Ireland (‘Then why did you abandon it, the reason to me tell?’), and America stands … Read more
HUGH II DE LACY AND THE ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADE By Paul Duffy This year marks the 800th anniversary of the foundation of the Order of Preachers, also known as the Black Friars or, more commonly, the Dominicans. St Dominic is credited with popularising that most Irish of devotions the Rosary, and a multitude of towns in … Read more
HAS SCIENCE ALSO BEEN AIRBRUSHED OUT OF IRISH HISTORY? By Eoin Gill This year there have been many claims about airbrushing. Irish soldiers in the First World War have been airbrushed out of Irish history; even the war itself, some claim, has been airbrushed out. Women have been airbrushed out of the Rising (Elizabeth Farrell … Read more
Sir,—I read with interest your article on ‘An Irish “Way of St James”’. There was a tradition in south Wexford that St James came to Carnsore via Lands End and Brittany. There are several references in Cambrensis Eversus, edited with translation and notes by Father Matthew Kelly, Maynooth, in 1850. In Our Lady’s Island church … Read more
Sir,—An inset to the thoughtful and interesting article ‘Reclaiming an Irish “Way of St James”’ (HI 24.3, May/June 2016, p. 17) gives a short summary of Thomas à Becket and his relationship with King Henry II, one-time friend and possible accomplice to his murder. It says that what came between the one-time friends was, ‘among … Read more