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
One of many examples of black propaganda by the press officials in Dublin Castle? Or has it a basis in truth? By Michael B. Barry As the War of Independence intensified throughout 1920, Crown forces expanded their operations in Dublin. The new force of Auxiliaries worked together with the British Army in mounting patrols, roadblocks … Read more
Who was Tony Small, friend and manservant of Lord Edward Fitzgerald? And what became of him and his family after Fitzgerald’s death in 1798? By Laura McKenna The Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina in September 1781 was one of the last of the Revolutionary War and one of the bloodiest. Among those left … Read more
Tracing Black, Asian, Minority-Ethnic (BAME) and mixed-race people in Ireland c. 1700–1922, part I By Fiona Fitzsimons From at least the eighteenth century there were BAME people in Ireland and Britain. Recent scholarship has begun to ask questions about who these people were, where they came from and how they circulated. From the Classical Age … Read more
What the recently refurbished basement rooms of Newbridge House, Co. Dublin, reveal about servants’ lives in one of Ireland’s ‘big houses’. By Cathal Dowd Smith A country house can be defined as a place of two halves, like the analogy of the swan—a serene upper level kept afloat by a lot of hard work below. … Read more