Esras Films (funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland) TG4, 13, 20, 27 March, 3 April 2017 By Peter Kelly The tall, balding young Irishman at the centre of the photograph is Fr Thomas Quinlan. From Tipperary and a passionate devotee of Gaelic games, Quinlan set up a hurling team at the Columban College in … Read more
Through the innocent gesture of inviting President Douglas Hyde to a soccer match between Poland and Ireland in 1938, Consul Dobrzyński—the first ever Polish diplomat to Ireland and otherwise a very popular and admired personality in 1930s Dublin—unwittingly caused chaos on the Irish political scene. By Ian Cantwell and Nikola Sękowska-Moroney Consul General Wacław Tadeusz … Read more
Fact and fiction in contemporary Irish newspapers. By William Burton This year marks the 80th anniversary of the attack on Guernica on 26 April 1937 by the German Condor Legion. The attack—the first large-scale air raid in human history—was virtually ignored by rural newspapers but heavily reported on in editorials and reports in national and … Read more
A providential encounter and one of the most remarkable tales of Irish bravery in the First World War. By Thomas Dillon On a Belgian battlefield in June 1917, Mickeen Cullens from County Kerry defied military orders by stopping to save a wounded comrade. Though he risked being shot by his own side, he rescued Ballybunion’s … Read more
Messines Ridge, 3am, 7 June 1917—an Irish soldier’s eyewitness account. By Seán Boyne Patrick Carroll would always remember the moment the massive explosion was set off by the sappers. It happened just after 3 o’clock in the morning of 7 June 1917, and the ground shook furiously as if there had been an earthquake. The … Read more