By Evan Comerford ‘The present famine, as all other famines in Ireland, has been the direct result of the system of land tenure which is maintained there’ (Charles Stewart Parnell, address to US House of Representatives, Washington, 2 February 1880). In 1879 Ireland was on the brink of famine once more. A succession of poor … Read more
By Fiona Fitzsimons Early in the morning of 14 January 1843, the island residents of Lough Ree returned home from the wake of their neighbour Betty Martin. Thady Shea, his adult sons, Bryan and Pat, and their friend John Lally went to the house of Michael Killian on Inchenagh Island. Killian worked the malt kiln … Read more
By Andreas Boldt Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), the German composer and pianist, is one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music. In his 30s Beethoven started to suffer hearing problems and by 1814 he had gone completely deaf. He gave up performing in public but continued to compose until his death … Read more
By Teddy Fennelly The story of Col. Ned Despard, the Irishman who was hanged for treason in London in 1803, has been well documented but largely forgotten until it was brought before a new, and huge, audience when he was featured in a highly dramatic episode in the fifth series of the BBC romantic historical … Read more
By Melissa Sheils ‘Although he is savage in his hair, … [Shane] does not seem to me that he is savage in his brain.’ These words, written by Álvaro de Quadra, the Spanish ambassador at the English court, provide a contemporary account of Shane O’Neill as a political actor who was less barbaric and more … Read more