It is widely believed that Captain William Bligh of the Royal Navy designed the North Bull Wall of the Liffey channel, causing the development of the North Bull Island. But do the facts support this? By Rob Goodbody and Richard Nairn The biggest problem to face the port of Dublin over the centuries … Read more
CLAIRE WILLS Allen Lane €30 ISBN 9781846147166 Reviewed by Mary Kenny Mary Kenny’s most recent book is Am I a feminist? Are you? (New Island). Everyone is familiar with the legend that Irish migrants to Britain were greeted with landlords’ notices saying ‘No blacks, no Irish, no dogs’. I have never quite believed this particular … Read more
An innovative, tenacious pioneer, Nano Nagle transcended the narrowly prescribed boundaries of her time. By Gillian O’Brien and Jessie Castle Between the early 1750s and her death in 1784 Nano Nagle established schools in Cork to educate poor Catholic children, brought the Ursuline Sisters to Ireland and founded her own religious order, the Presentation Sisters, … Read more
CAROLE HOLOHAN Liverpool University Press £80 ISBN 9781786941237 Reviewed by Tom Inglis Tom Inglis is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at University College Dublin. In 1966 Éamon de Valera was elected president of Ireland. He was 84 years old. His dream of Ireland as a country of cosy homesteads and comely maidens was shattered. Ireland was … Read more
CARLA KING UCD Press €50 ISBN 9781906359928 Reviewed by Conor McNamara Published towards the end of the centenary year of the 1916 Rising, Carla King’s monumental biography of the later life of Michael Davitt concludes by noting the startling omission of serious analysis of Davitt’s political vision in the discourse of Irish revolutionaries during the … Read more