A chara,—Much will be written over the next year about the Civil War in Ireland. There will be tales of atrocities, of executions and reprisals, of sexual attacks on women, the destruction of the Big Houses, the persecution of minorities, the nefarious behaviour of the Catholic Church and of the innocent victims caught up in … Read more
Sir,—It is said that ‘appearances can be deceiving’, and with the full-page picture of the Marquess of Sligo opposite an article entitled ‘Ireland and the “£20 Million Swindle”’ (HI 29.3, May/June 2021) such appears to be the case. On the passing of the Abolition of Slavery Act in August 1833, as the owner of two … Read more
Sir,—In his Platform piece, ‘Understanding our own ignorance’ (HI 29.2, March/April 2021), Dr Patrick Maume writes: ‘John Regan’s recent article on Peter Hart and Kilmichael (HI 28.6, Nov./Dec. 2021) … in demanding that no historical narrative should be written until every detail could be proven, unconsciously illustrates the limits of empiricism as methodology and why … Read more
BY TONY CANAVAN Irish father of the Suez Canal It is a little-known fact that Francis Rawdon Chesney, born in Annalong, Co. Down, in 1789, formulated the original plan for the Suez Canal. Chesney was an officer in the Royal Artillery, rising to the rank of general. In 1829 he was sent on a mission … Read more
BY AODHÁN CREALEY JULY 11/1792 The Belfast Harp Festival, a three-day event, opened in the Exchange Rooms. Perhaps the first attempt in Ireland to actively rejuvenate Gaelic culture occurred in Presbyterian Belfast, then known as the ‘Athens of the North’, a century before the Irish Literary Revival. Organised by a committee chaired by Dr James … Read more