By ideology is meant the framework of ideas—the world-view—that moulded how individuals and groups perceived the problems that faced them. Ideological constructions shaped the interpretation of catastrophes like the potato blight. They were significant in determining what were acceptable modes and levels of response to the crisis, giving legitimacy to some and not to others. … Read more
The Prints and Drawings Section alone houses at least 90,000 prints, drawings and water-colours and for the past five years an active programme to develop and properly exploit the collection has been ongoing. Only about five per cent of the material had been listed previously and currently stock checking and item-recording are regular features of … Read more
GH: Tell us about your background. JL: I was born in Tralee, County Kerry, in 1942. I spent my first nine years in the tranquil environment of Castlegregory, a village sixteen miles west of Tralee on the north side of the Dingle peninsula, where my father was a guard. We then moved to Ballinasloe, and … Read more
The absence of a strong tradition of farmer parties in a country with a very substantial proportion of the workforce engaged in agriculture has long been a source of puzzlement to students of twentieth-century Irish politics. Those farmers’ parties that have appeared in independent Ireland have never threatened to become majority parties nor have any … Read more
When I was scarcely eighteen years of age, Into the army I did engage, I left my house with full intent To join the forty-second [sic] regiment; To Fulwood barracks I then did go To do some duty in that old depot, But out of trouble I never was free, For my captain took a … Read more