By Róisín Kennedy In a much-quoted letter, written in 1938, the writer Samuel Beckett expressed his ‘chronic inability to understand … a phrase like “the Irish people” or to imagine that it ever gave a fart in its corduroys for any form of art whatsoever, whether before the union or after, or that it was … Read more
By Aidan O’Hara Delia Murphy was the best-known Irish woman of her day, and the most popular female vocalist in Ireland from the late 1930s to the early ’50s. She was also the country’s top recording artist, of traditional songs like The Spinning Wheel, Three Lovely Lassies from Bannion, The Shores of Lough Bran, The … Read more
By Seán Ryan Much has been written in recent years about the role of women in the Irish revolutionary period, 1913–23. Many new names have come to prominence and their roles in the momentous events of that time have been well chronicled. Moya Llewelyn Davies, however, is not one of them and an aura of … Read more
By Julitta Clancy ‘What an effect might be caused in Ulster were some friendly advance to be made to her now—were the boycott to be called off and a real and lasting truce to be proclaimed? I verily believe that the one moment of all the centuries has been reached in which north and south … Read more
By Hannah Baker Portrait-painter and social reformer Sarah Cecilia Harrison (1863–1941) was born in Holywood, Co. Down. After the death of her father in 1873 her family relocated to London, a move that would ultimately benefit Harrison, as in 1878 she began her artistic training at the Slade School of Fine Art. She valued her … Read more