NMI Country Life, Turlough Park, Castlebar, Co. Mayo www.museum.ie, www.nationaltreasures.ie By Tony Canavan I have to admit that I was expecting a lot from this exhibition. It is based on four RTÉ programmes from the four provinces in which thousands of ordinary people brought their ‘treasures’ along for consideration. The resulting exhibition in the National … Read more
The National Library of Ireland recently catalogued and made available the Gough papers, a collection relating to Hugh Gough and his family. The papers reveal much about the life of this ‘illustrious Irishman’ and his lengthy military career. By Fionnuala Walsh In 1986 an equestrian statue depicting Viscount Hugh Gough and describing him as … Read more
By Joe Culley (Twitter: @TheRealCulls) In the 1930s Ernie O’Malley began conducting interviews with some of his former comrades from his revolutionary days. Initially the interviews were informal and were designed to help him prepare his memoirs. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, however, O’Malley intensified his research, travelling the country as a sort … Read more
By Lar Joye This is a 222-year-old admiral’s barge that originally belonged to the French frigate La Résolue, a flagship commanded by Rear Admiral Neilly as part of the fleet bringing a French army to invade Ireland at Bantry Bay in December 1796. Thirty French warships and fourteen transport ships sailed from Brest with … Read more
GERARD FARRELL Palgrave Macmillan €96 ISBN 9783319593623 Reviewed by James O’Neill James O’Neill is an independent heritage consultant based in Belfast. Perhaps it’s a coincidence, or maybe it’s the recent 400th anniversary of the start of the Ulster plantation, but there has been a recent influx of monographs and edited volumes examining that pivotal yet … Read more