By Chris Chevallier The Bruce invasion was a major turning point in medieval Irish history, a calamity that seriously damaged English influence in Ireland until the Tudor Reconquest. At the very least, it weighted the scales against the colonial administration. This article will evaluate the impact of these events by analysing percentage changes in valuations … Read more
Loyalist and republican murals compared. By Bill Rolston In June 2019 there was a brief flurry of controversy regarding the political wall murals of Northern Ireland. It was started when a BBC reporter, Chris Lindsay, read an article about them in an inflight magazine on Singapore Airlines. He traced the source back to Fodor’s Essential … Read more
Sir—Might I respond to Rayner Lysaght’s latest critique (HI 27.4, May/June 2019, Letters) of my article ‘Was the War of Independence necessary?’ (HI 27.1, Jan./Feb. 2019)? As it was a ‘What if?’ article about alternative strategies for securing independence, it achieved its objective in prompting some debate. One hardy perennial to emerge was the old … Read more
Sir,—Following the article celebrating the philanthropic actions of Sir Paul Strzelecki during the Famine (HI 27.3, May/June 2019), it might be noted that his generosity was recognised on an earlier occasion. Strzelecki (1797–1873) was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London. During the Second World War the area was bombed and his grave was blown … Read more
Sir,—Mary Kenny having eloquently deconstructed for us some of what didn’t work with the TV documentary Rome v. Republic (HI 27.4, July/August 2019, ‘Seen on TV’), mostly from a twentieth-century perspective, may a historian of the 1790s now point to some missed opportunities? The documentary framed some compelling questions but offered us only partial answers … Read more