RONAN McGREEVY Faber and Faber £20 ISBN 9780571372805 Reviewed by John M. Regan Writing in his diary in September 1920, Henry Wilson recorded British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill’s reaction to news from Ireland that ‘Shinners’ were being secretly assassinated by the Crown forces. ‘Winston saw very little harm in it,’ wrote Wilson, ‘but it horrifies … Read more
By Joe Culley @TheRealCulls One of the little pleasures of writing this column has been getting a chance to get my hands on each tranche of the Maynooth Studies in Local History series. These brief but sharply focused studies, often the by-product of a postgraduate thesis, regularly throw up little gems. The long-time editor of … Read more
Museum of Literature Ireland (until 3 July 2022) Curated by Nuala O’Connor By Donal Fallon Where does the story of modern Irish literature begin? Any museum of literature in Ireland, never mind the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI), will face serious dilemmas of inclusion. One of the first things encountered by a visitor to MoLI … Read more
Directed by Kenneth Branagh By Fergus Whelan By the time you read this review I am sure that many History Ireland readers will already have seen Kenneth Branagh’s latest movie, Belfast. This film is a homage to the city of his birth, the community of his boyhood and his much-loved Protestant working-class extended family. For … Read more
RTÉ1, 3 February 2022 By Sylvie Kleinman This slightly formulaic yet stylish documentary commemorated—indeed, unashamedly celebrated—the passage of 100 years since the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses in Paris on 2 February 1922 (his 40th birthday). Part of a busy programme to mark this other defining Irish centenary, its perspectives on Ireland’s most cherished exile … Read more