By Laurence Geary Smallpox or variola is the only human disease to have been eradicated by vaccination, the last natural case occurring in 1977. For centuries this acute, highly infectious viral disease was feared and loathed in Ireland and elsewhere because of its disfiguring effects and relatively high mortality rate, often around 20%. Except in … Read more
By Eugene Coyle After the Restoration, Dublin city’s rapidly expanding population was dependent on coal imports from English and Welsh collieries. English mine-owners, particularly at Whitehaven in Cumbria, controlled all Irish coal imports. The city’s demand for imported coal grew during the eighteenth century, increasing from 50,000 tons in 1700 to over 400,000 tons in … Read more
By Declan Keenan For generations (from the mid-fourteenth up to the close of the sixteenth century) the Gaelicised Bourke septs of Mayo elected their chieftain, the MacWilliam Íochtair (the premier lord in Mayo), in the Gaelic manner at their adopted inauguration site of Rausakeera, in the barony of Kilmaine. Indeed, Rausakeera, a bivallate earthen fort … Read more
By Thomas O’Loughlin Anniversaries—including all the multiples such as centenaries—are a useful way of focusing our attention on the past and its ongoing significance for our self-understanding. And, among several other commemorations, this year has seen events to mark the 1500th anniversary of the birth of Columba (Colm Cille), the founder of the monastery of … Read more