IN 1796 A LARGE FRENCH INVASION FLEET SLIPPED PAST THE ROYAL NAVY AND MOORED OFF THE SOUTH-WEST COAST OF IRELAND AT BANTRY BAY. BATTERED BY STORMS, THE FRENCH TROOPS WERE UNABLE TO LAND AND RETURNED TO FRANCE. ‘WE WERE CLOSE ENOUGH TO TOSS A SHIP’S BISCUIT ASHORE’, WROTE WOLFE TONE BITTERLY IN HIS DIARY OF … Read more
By Lar Joye The National Museum of Ireland has a large collection of 80 horse-drawn vehicles, looked after by the Irish Folklife Department in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, consisting of side-cars, drays, street cabs, hearses, jaunting cars, barrel-top caravans, fire engines and commercial vehicles. In Dublin the Art and Industrial Division has a collection of twenty … Read more
RECOVERING THE ‘HIDDEN HISTORY’ OF AN ÉMIGRÉ COMMUNITY By Michael Brabazon Petit, Casinan, Visard, Douepurty, Petin, Arry, Tallon—the French names stood out in sharp relief against the familiar Nolans, O’Connors, Mellets and Gallaghers. The more I looked, the more I found: Royan, Callary, Pordon, Byenn, Caffel, Mossily. I was looking for my great-great-great-grandmother, Leuce Teat, … Read more
THE IRISH CONTEXT OF A SCOTTISH DISASTER By Simon Egan On 9 September 1513 the Scots suffered one of their most catastrophic military defeats. At Flodden field an army of 30,000 men under the command of James IV of Scotland was decimated by a smaller English force led by Thomas Howard (d. 1554), earl of … Read more
By Thomas O’Loughlin On 9 September there fell the centenary of Tom Kettle’s death at Ginchy ‘on the Somme’. Kettle was, among other things, a poet, a lawyer, a member of parliament and an academic: just the sort of person that any new state needs to provide management and leadership. Then we think again of … Read more