By Mary Kenny Robert Ballagh’s vivid portrait of John Charles McQuaid, archbishop of Dublin from 1940 to 1972, contains both irony and allusive narrative. The subject appears in the full regalia of a cardinal, but the great disappointment of Dr McQuaid’s life was that he never got the red hat, probably stymied by negative lobbying … Read more
Sir,—I refer to the seminar review, ‘Machnamh: Memory, History and Imagination’, by Colum Kenny (HI 31.1, Jan./Feb. 2023). Dr Kenny makes the following assertion in the second-last paragraph of his review: ‘The realities of the period a century ago need to be faced. The rejection of the opinion of a majority of citizens, expressed democratically … Read more
Sir,—Fiona Brennan’s very interesting article on Sigerson Clifford’s play about Daniel O’Connell, The Great Pacificator (HI 31.1, Jan./Feb. 20023, What’s On Stage), notes that in the first Dublin production (1947) the character of O’Connell’s maidservant, caught between loyalty to her employer and to her Young Ireland lover, was played by the distinguished actress and Cahirciveen … Read more
Sir,—Richard Pine’s letter (HI 30.5, Sept./Oct. 2022), responding to my article (HI 30.4, July/Aug. 2022, ‘Bram Stoker’s “Great Game”?’), usefully summarises the nineteenth-century history of the term ‘the Great Game’—a term used by British officials to refer to the competition between Britain and Russia for supremacy in Central Asia. The elaboration of this history of … Read more
Sir,—Tom Carew asks (HI 30.6, Nov./Dec. 2022, Letters) whether Canadians regard the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as a military force. It was a military force and would still be so regarded by many First Nations communities. These indigenous people were brutally rounded up and forced out of their homes and homelands by the RCMP. … Read more