The current situation in the Middle East reminds us of the ongoing toxic legacy of the Great War. In the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement of May 1916, in anticipation of the defeat of Ottoman Turkey, Britain and France, with the assent of Czarist Russia, carved up the Middle East into ‘spheres of influence’. After the war … Read more
2 St Mary’s Lane, High Street, Kilkenny www.medievalmilemuseum.ie By Tony Canavan Kilkenny’s newest museum is located in one of the city’s oldest buildings, St Mary’s Church, dating back to the twelfth century. There is no attempt to hide the building’s origins and the visitor is aware of being in a former church. The main structure … Read more
Directed by Christopher Nolan By Lar Joye Christopher Nolan has reimagined the World War II movie for a younger generation and, like Saving Private Ryan twenty years ago, has set a new standard for the war film. If you grew up in the 1970s and 1980s in Dublin, every Sunday there were wall-to-wall British war … Read more
Addressing a historical imbalance in Irish folklore-collecting. By Deirdre Nuttall and Críostóir MacCarthaigh When one thinks of folklore study and folklore-collecting in the area that is now the Republic of Ireland, the Protestant community is not normally the first sector of society to come to mind (using the term here to denote the array of … Read more
The sharp debates currently surrounding the issue of immigration and the securing of borders call to mind a strange situation that the de Valera government faced as the Second World War came to an end. By Bernard Kelly In late 1944, Dublin and Belfast were both surprised to learn that London was about to transfer … Read more