Carra, Co. Mayo By Damian Murphy County Mayo boasts a fine collection of early monastic buildings whose ruined carcasses, each set within a distinctive landscape, have long attracted antiquarians, artists, historians and photographers. Ballintubber Abbey, facing and almost in a dialogue with lofty Croagh Patrick, claims a legacy of over 800 years of continuous worship … Read more
MARCH 02 Mon 7.30pm Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 63 Merrion Square South. Embodying the past: commemorating history through the arts, Kelly Fitzgerald (RSAI), Valerie Connor (Curator), Louise Lowe (ANU Productions), Brenda Malone (NMI). 02 Mon 8pm Thomond Archaeological & Historical Society, T.1.17, Tara Building, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. Richard Hayes, codebreaker, Marc McMenamin. … Read more
By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr The arrival of the Black and Tans in March 1920 changed the entire complexion of the War of Independence. These ‘irregulars’ were established as a section of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and first appeared in the village of Upperchurch, Co. Tipperary. The British government needed more troops in Ireland … 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
On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the Trinity College Historical Society (‘the Hist’). By Ian Ashe The Hist’s 250th anniversary in March 2020 is an apt occasion to mark the strong connection to Thomas D’Arcy McGee, who pleaded: ‘Am I remembered in Erin, I charge you, speak me true? Has my name a … Read more