Mountlong, Co. Cork By Stephen Byrne Mountlong Castle, begun in 1631 by John Long, is a fine example of a new building type that emerged in the early seventeenth century: the fortified house. An earlier type, the defensive tower-house, dominated from the early 1400s until the 1640s. Seventeenth-century builders owed a debt to the … Read more
As racism rears its head in the 21st century, an account of the efforts of one Irishman in the fight against slavery in the nineteenth century is timely. By Anne Chambers The only child and heir of John Denis, 1st marquess of Sligo, of Westport House, Co. Mayo, and his wife Louisa Catherine, daughter and … Read more
The National Volunteer movementwas the largest paramilitary force in Ireland in the autumn of 1914, numbering an estimated 158,360 men.What happened to it? By Shane Brown In 1972 Robert Kee emphasised that ‘for a time, even at home, the Redmond National Volunteers remained strong and active… putting the activities of the small body of obscure … Read more
Irish units facing the 1918 German spring offensive. By Mark Phelan By early 1918, after more than three years of bloody stalemate, the strategic situation on the Western Front was delicately poised. While both sides suffered the effects of war-weariness, Germany in particular struggled against low morale, as a combination of poor harvests and British … Read more
Was this simply a case of a tourist snapping up collectables with a celebrity appeal, or does the episode reveal a deeper sympathy for the Jacobite cause? By Estelle Gittins The Library of Trinity College, Dublin, holds two fascinating and little-known manuscripts bought by a nineteenth-century Irish tourist in Rome—a volume of the private devotions … Read more