FINTAN O’TOOLE Royal Irish Academy €30 ISBN 9781908997159 By Peter Gahan It’s about time that Ireland took Bernard Shaw seriously, and Fintan O’Toole in his convincingly argued and highly readable Judging Shaw makes a powerful case for so doing. Like Shaw a political commentator and drama critic (although Shaw was many other things, not least … Read more
By Eoin Dillon JAMES KELLY, Four Courts Press, €45, ISBN 9791846826399 Eoin Dillin is a scholar of twentieth-century African history. An extravagant generalisation: predominantly agrarian societies share some basic characteristics. Life is dependent on the vagaries of immediate food production and storage; the technology involved is basic and stable, knowledge accrued is experientially based, and … Read more
BY AODHAN CREALEY MARCH 03/1947 Carol Reed’s film noir Odd Man Out, set in post-war Belfast with James Mason in the title role, opened in the city’s Classic cinema, off Royal Avenue. A large number of RUC men, in uniform and in plain clothes, were on duty outside, partly because Inspector General (Chief Constable) Sir … Read more
MARCH 05 Mon 6.30pm Engineers Ireland Heritage Society, 22 Clyde Road, Dublin 4. Cast-iron bridges, Ron Cox. 05 Mon 7.30pm Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 63 Merrion Sq. S. Everything but the apothecary: recent archaeological excavations, Kevin Street, Dublin, Alan Hayden. 07 Wed 7pm Irish Association of Professional Historians, National Library of Ireland, Kildare … Read more
By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr John Edward Redmond was a barrister, a writer and a nationalist politician. He was an MP and was leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) from 1900 to 1918. He was, for the time, a moderate, constitutional and conciliatory politician, and he attained the twin dominant objectives of his political … Read more