Place-name evidence suggests that Scandinavian rural settlement in Ireland was more extensive than is currently assumed. By William J. Smyth The Vikings were outstanding geographers. Their sea empire(s) stretched down the great rivers of continental Russia to reach Byzantium, while extending westwards to colonise Iceland, Greenland and even the edges of North America. To these … Read more
The animosity of both the Irish and the Turkish national movements towards their common foe found expression in their public pronouncements. By Merve Dogan Kader and Seán Patrick Smyth It is sometimes forgotten that Irish and Turkish soldiers faced each other on the battlefield during the Great War. Irish soldiers fought against the Turks not … Read more
The rich, varied, active and very political life of a committed feminist, trade union activist and republican. By Mary McAuliffe There has been an upsurge in the researching and writing of Irish revolutionary women’s history in recent years, with a corresponding public interest in and engagement with the lives, activisms and contributions of these women. … Read more
His assassination was ‘unmistakably the first blow in a methodical campaign of terrorism’. By Neville O’Connell On Monday 23 June 1919 the first horse-race meeting in three years took place on the outskirts of Thurles town. The organisers had advertised it throughout the country in an effort to make it an overwhelming success. Thousands were … Read more
A ‘grey, eighteenth-century house’ that witnessed the turbulent birth of a new Irish administration and later became a refuge for ‘fallen women’. By Frank Cogan A truly dramatic scene in Neil Jordan’s film Michael Collins is when the eponymous hero is forced to emerge through a skylight and take a perilous route across the rooftops … Read more