JANE OHLMEYER (ed.) Cambridge University Press £100 ISBN 9781107117631 Reviewed by Hiram Morgan Ireland 1550–1730 is the second of four volumes intended as a flagship series on the history of Ireland for the ‘decade of commemorations’. The series showcases the work of a generation of scholars and inevitably invites comparison with Oxford University Press’s nine-volume … Read more
The Right Honourable Senator Hugh Thom Barrie JP, DL, MP was at the heart of Ulster Unionist politics at a time of great campaigning and political battles. But who was he? By Aaron Callan H.T. Barrie is not as well known as Carson or Craig, even in his adoptive town of Coleraine. In most books … Read more
By Fiona Fitzsimons This collection, the earliest run of travel documents, survives in the Augmentation Office papers in the Exchequer records of the UK National Archives. The Office derived from the Court of Augmentation, a financial court; the safe conduct of travellers was guaranteed by the Crown, for which it was also a useful source … Read more
Friendly societies played a vital role in mitigating the worst material consequences of illness and hardship. By Joe Fodey The Irish National Foresters (INF) was probably the most famous and influential of the many friendly societies operating in Ireland during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In its heyday it had branches throughout Ireland and … Read more
From superstition to Streptomyces. By Eugene Dunphy On the morning of Sunday 2 January 1842, two unnamed young men set out on a mission. A relative of one suffered from tuberculosis (TB) and had subsequently contracted scrofula, a side-effect of TB that caused disfiguring abcesses in the neck of the unfortunate sufferer. Hoping to find … Read more