OSCAR TRAYNOR WAS A CONVENTIONAL MEMBER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY GENERATION, BUT WHAT MARKED HIM OUT FROM MANY OF HIS COLLEAGUES WAS HIS ALLEGIANCE TO WHAT WAS OFTEN DISMISSED AS A ‘FOREIGN’ GAME By Brian Hanley Born in Dublin in 1886, the son of a Fenian, Oscar Traynor was a skilled tradesman (a compositor) and a … Read more
By Lar Joye The Irish Republican Brotherhood, more commonly known as the Fenians, was founded simultaneously in Ireland and the United States in March 1858. By 1861, at the start of the American Civil War, it had become a formidable secret organisation in Ireland, and also among Irish emigrants in Britain and the United States. … Read more
HOW INDEPENDENT IRELAND’S EARLIEST ATTEMPTS AT DIPLOMACY IN BERLIN WERE SABOTAGED BY THE PERSONAL RIVALRY BETWEEN IRISH DIPLOMATS By Darren Kelly The Irish Free State is an entity that is often defined by its relationship with Britain, but its founders desired a close relationship with its Continental neighbours. Post-war Europe was a place where smaller … Read more
WHAT WAS THE CONTEXT OF ONE OF THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL INCIDENTS OF THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE? By Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc The night before the truce that ended the War of Independence, four British soldiers—Harold Daker, Henry Morris, Alfred Camm and Albert Powell—were abducted by an IRA unit in Cork. Word soon reached Connie Neenan, … Read more
THE LITTLE-KNOWN STORY OF HER ENGAGEMENT WITH IRELAND By Geoffrey Bell The story really begins on 1 November 1913, when Sylvia Pankhurst spoke at a meeting in London’s Albert Hall in support of the workers in the Dublin Lockout, which was, Pankhurst was later to write, ‘a poignant incident in our common struggle for a … Read more