A chara,—I refer to an item in September’s ON THIS DAY in the last issue (HI 30.5, Sept./Oct. 2022) on p. 7 and referenced 20/1922. The item erroneously states that four people (it uses the term ‘Irregulars’ for Republican forces, a pejorative term coined by pro-Treaty propagandists) were summarily executed on Ben Bulben, Co. Sligo. … Read more
Sir,—When my eyes spotted the title ‘Who speaks for Ulster, 1913, 2022?’, I rapidly flipped through the pages of the latest issue (HI 30.5, Sept./Oct. 2022), expecting to find some reference to the writings of Belfast poet John Hewitt. Author M.C. Rast chronicles critical aspects of this momentous period of Irish history since 1913, but … Read more
Sir,—It is only with reluctance that one criticises the product of an optimistic perspective. The positive and optimistic bring hope, and with hope comes enthusiasm, leading to progress. However, the piece on economic and social progress for the first 100 years of independent Ireland, ‘A people’s progress’ (HI 30.3, May/June 2022, Platform) by Mark Henry, … Read more
Sir,—Your latest editorial (HI 30.5, Sept./Oct. 2022) offers a simple (and, indeed, quite simplistic) binary—as well as utterly unhistorical—distinction between (a) ‘military forces’ and (b) ‘a civil police force’. Ireland (outside Dublin City) was policed from 1836 not by ‘military forces’ but on a model that also operated both on the Continent and in Canada—the … Read more
BY DONAL FALLON FOLK 21 Congratulations to the National Museum of Ireland, Country Life (the only branch of the NMI outside Dublin), which has marked 2022 with Folk 21, an exhibition inspired by the 21st anniversary of the institution. The museum site was born out of the Irish Folklore Collection of the institution, which they … Read more