Rathvilly, Co. Carlow By Turtle Bunbury Located just south of Rathvilly, Co. Carlow, Lisnavagh House was one of the largest houses in Ireland before a major reduction in the 1950s. The first stone of the rambling Gothic Revival mansion had been laid just over a century earlier, after Captain William McClintock Bunbury (1800–66), a 46-year-old … Read more
Four different legal systems operated, with profound consequences for the concept of legitimacy. By Cormac T. Hickey In force until the Flight of the Earls and the collapse of the Gaelic order in the early seventeenth century, brehon law did not distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate children in terms of either rights or responsibilities, but … Read more
Right-wing propagandists fail to understand the difference between Irish nationalism and republicanism. By Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc Recent controversies surrounding Ireland’s immigration policy, the direct provision system and proposed ‘hate speech’ legislation have seen sections of the Irish ‘alt-right’ scene develop from a largely on-line phenomenon into an active protest movement. The Irish alt-right—who some … Read more
By Joe Culley @TheRealCulls In The begrudger’s guide to Irish politics, Breandán Ó hEithir, while discussing the executions of the Four Courts prisoners during our brief but vicious Civil War, says of Dick Mulcahy: ‘It was public opinion, fed on rumours, that dubbed him “Dirty Dick” and the cry “Seventy-seven” followed him all through his … Read more
‘Crank Hugh’ left a trail of bitterness and recrimination. By Colum Kenny Frank Hugh O’Donnell (1846–1916) merits entries in both the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and the Cambridge/RIA Dictionary of Irish Biography, yet neither refers to his virulent anti-Semitism. The British immigration and identity scholar Kenneth Lunn has written of O’Donnell’s consistently exhibited view … Read more