By Fiona Fitzsimons This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Irish Church Act (1869), which disestablished the Church of Ireland. As the State church, the Church of Ireland was an arm of the government at local level. Its basic administrative unit was the civil parish. All the people of the State were required to … Read more
A master-class in trolling from an eighteenth-century bishop. By Clare Moriarty George Berkeley is Ireland’s best-known historical philosopher, whose fame rests on being the chief advocate of a pretty peculiar metaphysical position: immaterialism, the view that no mind-independent material objects exist. Historians of mathematics know him as a petulant critic of early calculus. In his … Read more
Exploring medieval Ireland’s economy via papal taxation records. By Chris Chevallier There are multiple obstacles hindering the study of the Irish medieval economy. Regionalism and political divisions spatially limited the effective administrative reach of the colonial government. Shifting alliances, conflict and a frontier in constant flux exacerbated this issue. Concerning existing records, colonial financial … Read more
What does the public reaction to the safe retrieval of holy relics from Notre Dame Cathedral reveal about the cult of relics in the modern world? By Niamh Wycherley Shocking images and live videos of a burning Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, spread like the fire itself across the internet on 15 April this year. While … Read more
What caused the ‘great explosion’? By Michael Fewer The Civil War began on 28 June 1922, when the National Army attacked an anti-Treaty force that had been in occupation of the Four Courts in Dublin since April of that year. After 60 hours of fighting and comparatively few casualties, the Four Courts garrison surrendered. Before … Read more