By Áine Hensey In Freedom and the Fifth Commandment: Catholic priests and political violence in Ireland, 1920–21, Brian Heffernan describes the considerable diversity of opinion that existed among Irish Catholic priests during the political and military developments of the years following the 1916 Rising. Particularly intriguing are his references to the unusually revolutionary environment of … Read more
By Dean Jobb They wore workmen’s clothing, making them indistinguishable from the thousands of Irish newcomers in search of jobs in Nova Scotia’s mines or building its railways. James Holmes, almost six feet tall, with a dark complexion and a drooping black moustache, had been born in St Joseph, Missouri. His companion, William Bracken, came … Read more
By Arnold Horner Between the 1880s and the early years of the twentieth century, in one of the least politically charged transformations of the period, Ireland’s first cycling revolution brought, quite literally, a new dynamic to Irish life. Functional benefits included greater accessibility to villages and towns, with a consequent widening and strengthening of the … Read more
By Noel O’Connell Francis Maginn was the foremost pioneer of the deaf community in Ireland and Britain during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. No one enjoyed such prominence, status and acclaim in the deaf world of the time. From being a teacher of deaf children at the Royal School for the Deaf in … Read more
By Damian Murphy The neo-Palladian Frenchpark, Co. Roscommon, was built c. 1730 for John French (d. 1734) or his son Arthur (d. 1761), its design attributable to Richard Castle (d. 1751), although a lunette on its pedimented red-brick façade recorded a pedigree dating back to 1667, when the estate was inherited by Dominick French (d. … Read more