Volume 27

Documentary on One RTÉ Radio 1, 3 November 2018 https://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/2018/1017/1004886-irelands-first-superstar/ By Donal Fallon Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore lived a remarkable and colourful life. Indeed, listening to Tim Desmond’s latest contribution to the Documentary on One series, there is a constant feeling of bemusement at not having heard of Gilmore before. The title of this effort, Ireland’s … Read more

By Joe Culley If you like your history spiced up with a bit of true crime, then Dean Ruxton’s When the hangman came to Galway will be just the ticket. In 1894–5 both the town of Galway and the nation were gripped by two murders, one in a hotel in Eyre Square, the other in … Read more

BRIAN HANLEY Manchester University Press £80/€93.75 ISBN 9780719091131 Reviewed by: Martin Mansergh Martin Mansergh is a former government adviser and politician. One of the most natural human tendencies is to try and sanitise narratives of the past, to smooth over the jagged edges, the mistaken actions and judgements, and, if possible, to cover them with … Read more

KARINA HOLTON Four Courts Press €49 ISBN 9781846827051 Reviewed by: Sylvie Kleinman Sylvie Kleinman has worked for the Dictionary of Irish Biography. This book makes the compelling case that Valentine Lawless, second Baron Cloncurry, was ‘second only to the [3rd] Duke of Leinster’ among high-ranking Liberal Protestants during the first half of the nineteenth century. … Read more