By D.M. Leeson Between 1920 and 1921, thousands of mostly British ex-servicemen joined the Royal Irish Constabulary to work as militarized police in Ireland, where they soon became known as Black and Tans. Since 2010, a curious misconception has arisen about these British police recruits: that they formed a separate force called the ‘Royal Irish … Read more
Sir,—My mother, Mrs Gladys Giltrap (née Kingston) was born on 14 August 1922. She has just turned 100 and remains in excellent health. She was born at 3 Marino Street, Bantry, to Jane Kingston (née Young) and George Kingston. Mum tells the story that when she was about three days old her mother was nursing … Read more
Sir,—Apropos John M. Regan’s review of Ronan McGreevy’s Great Hatred (HI 30.3, May/June 2022). ‘I am an Irishman, born in County Longford’ stated Henry Wilson during the course of a speech given at Caxton Hall in London in May 1922 (Northern Whig, 10 May 1922). Wilson stated this throughout his life and to the best of my knowledge anything biographical … Read more
An article on ‘The Radical Club: a 1920s forum for “progressive cultural activity”’ (HI 27.5, Sept./Oct. 2019) referred to a debate at that club on Joyce’s Ulysses in which Liam O’Flaherty and ‘MacManus’ (as identified in Rosamond Jacob’s diaries) were the antagonists. The article’s author, Brian Trench, named Francis MacManus as the debater but now … Read more
Sir,—Martin Greene (‘Bram Stoker’s “Great Game”?’, HI 30.4, July/Aug. 2022) refers to the term ‘Great Game’ being in use ‘among British military officials in India’ from the Afghan wars onwards (that is from 1838 up to the date of Kipling’s Kim (1901). The first recorded use is in 1840, when Capt. Arthur Conolly wrote ‘If … Read more