BY AODHÁN CREALEY SEPTEMBER 22/1846 The luxury liner SS Great Britain, en route on her fifth voyage from Liverpool to New York, ran aground on the sands of Dundrum Bay, Co. Down, when her captain mistook the new St John’s lighthouse for the Calf light on the Isle of Man. Designed by the great Isambard … Read more
In spring 2020 justice minister, Charlie Flanagan, announced, as part of the official Decade of Centenaries events, a commemoration of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RIC). Such was the public outcry that it had to be abandoned. Nevertheless a commemoration eventually took place in April 2022, but in St Paul’s Cathedral, London. This was accompanied by … Read more
By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr The Civil War was the lowest point in recent Irish history. Few wars are as bitter as civil wars; few civil wars were as bitter as the Irish Civil War. Its brutality was horrifying, and the tactics of both sides did no justice to the causes for which they fought. … Read more
SARAH COVINGTON Oxford University Press £25 ISBN 9780198848318 Reviewed by Guy Beiner Guy Beiner is the Sullivan Chair of Irish Studies at Boston College. In the Irish countryside, a hex of ‘scrios Cromaill ort’ (typically cast by an elderly woman or a widow) was dreaded. The ‘Curse of Cromwell’ conjured up deep-rooted and traumatic historical … Read more
JULIE KAVANAGH Grove Press £18.99 ISBN 9781611856415 Reviewed by Barry Walsh Barry Walsh is a solicitor and a former Policy Adviser at the Department of An Taoiseach. The final decades of British rule in Ireland have been examined by many British authors in the last century, often with mixed results. The works of Charles Townshend, … Read more