By Ian Campbell Ross and Anne Markey When Benedict Kiely published his biography of the Tyrone-born novelist and short-story writer William Carleton, he called it Poor scholar (1947). The title was apt and, in line with the book’s subtitle, ‘A study of the works and days of William Carleton’, powerfully evocative of the hedge school … Read more
Irish names in the Legacy of British Slave-ownership (LBS) database (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/). By Sylvie Kleinman ‘I do not envy his father his £79,000’, said Daniel O’Connell of the young William Gladstone to abolitionists in London in March 1838, ‘nor the feelings aroused in his breast’ when hearing of the famishing negro on his estate. They were … Read more
By Michael Brabazon In 1974, a young man by the name of Mike Brennan was exploring a dilapidated, derelict house in Swinford, Co. Mayo. He made his way up the Georgian mansion’s rickety staircase to the first floor, where he discovered a small, hidden cupboard set into the wall. Prising it open, he found a … Read more
‘Never reformed because never deformed’ By Yvonne McDermott During the medieval period Ireland played host to many religious orders, following a range of monastic rules and forms of life, with a common aim of devoting themselves to God. Among the more obscure of these are the Carthusians, whose solitary lives, brief stay in Ireland … Read more