A divinely sanctioned form of imperialism or an explanation for the apparently beleaguered condition of God’s chosen people? By Aidan Cottrell-Boyce The one-time governor of Jerusalem Sir Ronald Storrs made a memorable claim about the potential of Palestine to become a ‘Jewish home’: ‘Enough [Jews] could return, if not to form the Jewish State … … Read more
One of the hundreds of Irishmen who pursued careers in colonial Palestine. By Seán William Gannon On 6 December 1956, the custodian of the Basilica of Gethsemane in then-Jordanian East Jerusalem, Revd Dr Eugene Hoade, was declared persona non grata by Amman’s interior ministry, taken under armed guard to Qalandia airport and placed on a … Read more
The Irish Self-Determination League of Great Britain (ISDL), 1919–31. By Pádraig Manning This year marks the centenary of the establishment of the Irish Self-Determination League of Great Britain (ISDL), a nationalist diaspora organisation founded in 1919 and formally disbanded in 1931. Despite claiming to have been ‘the greatest Irish-Ireland organisation [Great Britain] has ever known’, … Read more
The Irish Civil War is universally described as a war of ‘brother against brother’, but such a gender-exclusive metaphor cannot represent the particular violence that women experienced and which is a feature of all known wars. By Linda Connolly Rarely is the Irish Civil War described as a case of ‘brother against sister’ or vice versa. … Read more
By John Hayes During the centennial commemorations of the First World War, the illustration entitled ‘The Last General Absolution of the Munsters at Rue-du-Bois’ by the war artist Fortunino Matania often appeared. The image depicts the administration of the sacrament of penance to the second battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers by their chaplain, Fr … Read more