BY AODHÁN CREALEY JANUARY 28/1547 King Henry VIII (55) died. Popularly remembered for his six marriages and his despotism (it’s estimated that he judicially murdered some 1,500 of his subjects, from humble servants to queens), it was Henry, of course, who introduced the Reformation to these islands. In 1534, when Pope Clement VII refused him … Read more
By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr On 27 September 1922, Dáil Éireann passed emergency legislation that allowed for the execution of those captured bearing arms against the Free State. The legislation passed to the National Army powers of punishment for anyone ‘taking part in or aiding and abetting attacks on the National Forces’, having possession of … Read more
SIOBHÁN FITZPATRICK and MARY O’DOWD (eds) Royal Irish Academy €25 ISBN 9781911479833 Reviewed by Mary Kenny Mary Kenny is the author of The way we were: Catholic Ireland since 1922 (Columba Books, 2022). It used to be a feminist principle that the family was the source of women’s oppression. The home was a prison, marriage … Read more
PAURIC TRAVERSFour Courts Press€22.45ISBN 9781846829789 Reviewed by John Dorney John Dorney is the editor of ‘The Irish Story’ website. Pauric Travers’s study of Donegal during the years of upheaval from 1912 to 1923 plots a course from a politics dominated before the Great War by the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) and the remaining patrician unionist … Read more