Themes in Irish politics that have recurred over nine decades. By James McNaney ‘Sinn Fein is not a normal political party.’ When Leo Varadkar said this during the recent general election campaign, he did not mean that Sinn Féin is unconventional but expressed fears over the party’s links to the IRA. Members of Fine Gael … Read more
A Joycean critique of The resurrection of Hungary? By Martin Greene In the ‘Cyclops’ episode of Ulysses, Leopold Bloom, a Dubliner of Hungarian-Jewish descent, has an unpleasant encounter in Barney Kiernan’s public house with the bigoted nationalist known as ‘The Citizen’. One of the issues of the day is Arthur Griffith’s ‘Hungarian policy’. It’s 16 … Read more
By Fiona Fitzsimons Between 1840 and 1853 vaccination acts introduced free, compulsory immunisation against smallpox in England and Wales. Similar laws for Ireland were enacted in 1863. The Compulsory Vaccination (Ireland) Act required parents and guardians to vaccinate every child born after 1 January 1864, with a follow-up appointment within eight days to determine the … Read more
The man who paved the way for Parnell by awakening the moribund constitutional nationalist spirit. By Bruce Kelley On the evening of 19 May 1870, some of the most important political figures in Ireland assembled in the great room of Bilton’s Hotel, Dublin. It was a meeting unique in the history of Ireland and which … Read more
How the Irish authorities grappled with the past in the context of the present. By John Gibney On 1 November 1970 James Daly was reinterred in Tyrellspass, Co. Westmeath, almost exactly 50 years after he had been executed in India. Born in Ballymoe at the turn of the century, he had grown up in Tyrellspass … Read more