The dangers posed by an ambitious designated successor. By Matthew McGinty One of the greatest threats to the regime of a Xi Jinping or a Vladimir Putin is succession, because the autocrat will eliminate ambitious and able would-be competitors once he has consolidated power. One way in which a ruler in the past could manage … Read more
By Padraig Yeates In a decade overshadowed by centenaries it is perhaps inevitable that 50th anniversaries are somewhat neglected, particularly south of the border, where the more recent Troubles are often regarded as less relevant to the story of nation-building, or even as too problematic and recent to be addressed in a historical context. Yet, … Read more
A chara,—A fine article regarding RIC District Inspector Swanzy and the ensuing riots in Lisburn (HI 28.5, Sept./Oct. 2020). One clarification, however, re the assertion that ‘Swanzy was assassinated … by Volunteers of the Cork IRA’. To the best of my research—as substantiated in Richard Abbott’s excellent Police casualties in Ireland 1919–1922 (pp 113–15)—Mick Collins … Read more
Sir,—I was delighted to see that Laurence Fenlon’s piece on ‘Ireland, slavery and the slave trade’ (HI 28.5, Sept./Oct. 2020) recognised the key role played by the jeweller and watchmaker (and United Irishman) Thomas McCabe in preventing that appalling trade from being set up in Belfast in 1786. The plan to set up ‘a company … Read more
Sir,—In the 1844 cartoon illustrating Rob Christie’s article about Abraham Brewster (HI 28.6, Sept./Oct. 2020, p. 21), the figure exiting left is not Brewster, as stated in the caption, but Frederick Shaw (1799–1876), Recorder of Dublin and MP for Dublin University, Robert Peel’s principal Irish political ‘fixer’. The devil’s remark, ‘P’Shaw don’t mind them’, hints … Read more