JULY 02/1850 Sir Robert Peel (62), founder of the Conservative Party and British prime minister, died. In nationalist Ireland Peel would perhaps be best remembered as Daniel O’Connell’s nemesis, the man with the chilling smile ‘like the silver plate on a coffin’ who was forced to concede Catholic Emancipation (1829), who suppressed the Repeal movement … Read more
By Denis Fahey When a British monarch dies, an Accession Council, consisting mainly of members of the Privy Council, assembles to proclaim the successor, and so, on 10 September 2022, Prince Charles was declared to be king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of his other realms and territories. The … Read more
In this issue, and in this year, the 175th since the ‘first’ flying of the Irish tricolour from the Wolfe Tone Confederate Club in Waterford on 7 March 1848, Sylvie Kleinman (pp 16–17) outlines the slightly more complicated evolution of the flag over the previous 50 years. She also reminds us that Thomas Francis Meagher … Read more
By Joseph E.A. Connell Jr Although Liam Lynch opposed the seizure of the Four Courts in April 1922 by a group of hard-line republicans, he joined its garrison in June 1922. He was arrested by the Free State forces but was allowed to leave Dublin, on the understanding that he would try and halt the … Read more
MARY KENNY Columba Books €19.99 ISBN 9781782183860 Reviewed by Sarah-Anne Buckley Sarah-Anne Buckley lectures in history at the University of Galway. Mary Kenny states that the focus of her most recent book, The way we were, is twofold. Part 1 examines ‘the context of history’ and Catholic Ireland since 1922. Part 2 explores the ‘men … Read more