What sort of world did the ending of the First World War bring into being? By John Horne At 11am on 11 November 1918, the guns fell silent along the Western Front. The noise, continuous since late 1914, was said to have been the loudest ever made by humans. Now weary soldiers simply shook hands. … Read more
By Fiona Fitzsimons The Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878, gave power to local authorities to establish mortuaries, and authorised any justice to order the removal of dead bodies to a mortuary. Where death was sudden, violent or unexplained, the body could be brought to a morgue for post-mortem examination before burial. Depending on the result, … Read more
By high summer of 1918, German forces on the Western Front had been fought to a standstill. Having expended their reserves in a series of offensives collectively known as the Kaiserschlacht (‘Kaiser’s Battle’), the high command of the German Army nervously awaited the inevitable Allied counterstrokes. By Mark Phelan The Second Battle of the Marne … Read more
In R.M. Fox’s collection of biographical essays Rebel Irishwomen (1935), included alongside Maud Gonne MacBride, Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and Constance Markievicz is an obscure London-born nurse, Dora Maguire. Who was she and what did she achieve during her short life? By James Curry An unlikely Irish republican and labour activist, Theodora Agnes Eleanor Maguire was born … Read more
By Rachel McKenna The lush landscape of County Offaly is dotted and studded with follies, those curios described by Primrose Wilson, chairman of the Follies Trust, as ‘statements of style [where] the element of eccentricity is essential’. Often engendering an affection lacking for the rest of the landlord’s property, the folly will frequently outlast the … Read more