Thady McMahon, Eugene O’Curry and singing beggars in mid-nineteenth-century Dublin. By Ciarán McCabe In November 1852 a 60-year-old blind beggar named Thady McMahon was arrested and detained in Dublin city for ‘being a wandering vagrant’. With three or four previous convictions ‘for vagrancy’, McMahon was sentenced before the magistrates at the Capel Street Police Office … Read more
Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex, and the failure of plantation in Elizabethan Ulster, c. 1573–6. By David Heffernan Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex, was a paradoxical figure. When he died in Dublin on 22 September 1576 at the age of just 37 he was surrounded by some of the leading political figures of … Read more
On the challenges of writing (yet another) biography of ‘the Chief’. By David McCullagh In 2010, shortly after the publication of my biography of John A. Costello, I was asked by an interviewer about my choice of subject. I airily replied that, while little had been written about Costello, ‘the last thing the world needs … Read more
The worst single episode of loss of life suffered by the Irish Defence Forces since the Civil War. By Terence O’Reilly By September 1941 the Second World War had been ravaging the continent of Europe for two full years. Ireland had successfully remained neutral, owing in no small part to the rapid expansion of the … Read more
The Irishman who made the first successful east–west flight across the Atlantic in April 1928. By Teddy Fennelly The First World War hastened the advancement of aircraft technology. From its use as an experimental armament of war in 1914, its enhanced mobility, stability and speed had established the airplane as an essential weapon of warfare … Read more