58 South William Street, Dublin 2 The City Assembly House was the first purpose-built art gallery in Great Britain and Ireland. The Society of Artists in Ireland was established expressly to promote the work of Irish artists and to provide an academy for the arts. Following the success of the first exhibition, held in rented … Read more
A great discovery that has been plagued by controversy for two centuries. By Michael Smith The dark scudding clouds and misty haze parted briefly in the late afternoon to reveal the wondrous sight of an icy landscape never seen by human eyes before that moment. It was 30 January 1820 and Edward Bransfield, an accomplished … Read more
This year will mark the 200th anniversary of one of Ireland’s most notorious murders: the brutal killing of a beautiful fifteen-year-old peasant girl called Ellie Hanley, who became known asthe Colleen Bawn. By Robert Whelan Elopement and sham marriage Ellie Hanley lived in Ballicahane, just outside the city of Limerick. Her great beauty attracted the … Read more
Labour’s 1918 anti-conscription ‘Plan of Action’—an alternative strategy for independence? By Padraig Yeates In 1918 the Irish Labour Party and Trade Union Congress (ILP&TUC) proposed methods of passive resistance to conscription that could have been adapted by Dáil Éireann to pursue the struggle for independence in 1919, rather than allowing the country to be catapulted … Read more
Sir,—In his review of volume III (1730–1880) of the Cambridgehistory of Ireland (HI 26.6, Nov./Dec. 2018), Timothy Murtagh faults itspredecessor, A new history of Ireland,on the grounds that it was more than ‘just a series of books’ but was ‘astatement by an entire generation of revisionist scholars’. If this is a fault,it could be made … Read more