Jim Blaney The ballad known as McCafferty or McCaffery has long been a favourite. It was said to have been so popular that it was banned in the British army, since it appeared to authorities to be altogether too sympathetic to Private Patrick McCaffery, who had been executed for shooting two of his superior officers. … Read more
Joseph Starr In Europe the eighteenth century was known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason. Intellectuals firmly believed that men were perfectible and that having achieved that state an era of harmony, peace and progress would emerge. Armed with these ideas they set out to reform every … Read more
Hiram Morgan The palpable and enduring effect of the Reformation on Irish history should not be allowed to obscure the impact also made by the Renaissance. The rationale behind the Tudor attempt to ‘reform’ the Irish polity and the Gaelic section of its population was provided by humanists variously inspired by classical ideas of … Read more
James Lydon In a parliament which met at Dublin in 1460 a famous statute was passed in which it was stated that the land of Ireland is, and at all times has been, corporate of itself by the ancient laws and customs used in the same, freed of the burden of any … Read more