The Dublin Port Company photographic archive. By Aidan Crawley Recent years have witnessed an explosion in public interest in old or historical photographs, as evidenced by the number of social media sites dedicated to the past and by cultural institutions such as the National Library and the National Museum hosting photographic exhibitions dedicated to Ireland’s … Read more
Food for humans, fairies and the dead at Hallowe’en. By Regina Sexton In his seminal 1972 publication The year in Ireland, folklorist Kevin Danaher identifies May Day (Bealtaine) and its partner half-year festival Hallowe’en (Samhain) as the two main days of ritualised celebration in the Irish calendar year. These secular festivals were traditionally anchored in … Read more
Hugh Mahon, the Irishman expelled from the Australian parliament. By Jeff Kildea As we progress through the ‘decade of centenaries’, many are likely to be suffering from centenary fatigue. No doubt our forebears 100 years ago felt a similar fatigue but with more justification. For them the decade had begun optimistically with the introduction of … Read more
The British government’s commitment to Irish unity turned out to be illusory. By Cormac Moore The Government of Ireland Act 1920, which led to the partition of Ireland, had its genesis in the latter half of 1919, once most of the post-First World War peace conferences had concluded. The Third Home Rule Act had been … Read more
In this the centenary year of the Kilmichael ambush it is perhaps timely to reflect on Peter Hart’s reinterpretation and how he arrived at his conclusions. By John Regan Twenty-two years ago, Canadian-born historian the late Peter Hart stirred up controversy with his iconoclastic reinterpretation of the famous ambush at Kilmichael. The storm followed the … Read more