By Lar Joye When war broke out in 1914, about 21,000 Irishmen were serving in the British Army. Another 47,000 Irish reservists were quickly mobilised and were to be joined by about 150,000 volunteers over the next four years. By the end of the war in November 1918, 35,000 Irish soldiers had died and … 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
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