Issue 4 (July/August 2022) – Page 7

THE CASEMENT MEMORIAL STATUE AND THE ‘NIGHTMARE OF HISTORY’

‘History … is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake’ is one of the more familiar metaphors from Joyce’s Ulysses. But what exactly did Joyce mean? One line of interpretation claims that ‘History’ is incapable of delivering either justice or enlightenment. It is a narrative that is violent, chaotic and perpetually oppressive. With … Read more

The Civil War and the consolidation of partition

By the end of August 1922, the ‘conventional’ phase of the Civil War was over. Dublin and the country’s major towns were firmly in the hands of the Provisional Government’s ‘National Army’ (as it was now referred to in the mainstream press). Amphibious landings along the south and west coasts outflanked the short-lived anti-Treaty ‘Munster … Read more