RTÉ Radio 1, 5 November 2017 By John Gibney The three funerals that are the subject of this compelling instalment of RTÉ Radio 1’s Documentary On One series arose from two very different burials and left behind three very different graves.What they have in common is that theyall relate to the same person. Frank Stagg … Read more
Central Bank Visitor Centre, North Wall Quay, Dublin 1 www.centralbank.ie, visitorcentre@centralbank.ie By Tony Canavan The new building that is now home to the Central Bank of Ireland is an impressive structure, apparently covered in gold leaf, overlooking the River Liffey. Unlike the old building in Dame Street, this one has a more friendly aspect and … Read more
Seán Duffy talked to Donnchadh Ó Corráin, Emeritus Professor of Medieval Irish History at University College Cork, shortly before his death on 25 October 2017. SD: Tell me about your family background and early years. DÓC: Well, I’m from Killorglin, Co. Kerry, from a farming background—a family that had a sideline in clerics and teachers and … Read more
The Reformation in Ireland. By Henry A. Jefferies Five hundred years after Luther unwittingly launched the Protestant Reformation, historians are still struggling to explain fully why his message resonated compellingly with some Christians but not with others. It failed to resonate to any significant degree among the Irish; contemporaries reckoned the number of Irish Protestants … Read more
Comparing Irish nationalism and Zionism. By Aidan Beatty In one of the most memorable scenes of Myles na gCopaleen’s classic 1941 satire An Béal Bocht, the erstwhile narrator, Bónapárt Ó Cúnasa, recounts the arrival of a group of festive Gaelic League day-trippers in his imaginary village of Corca Dorca. Ó Cúnasa describes an odd practice … Read more