BITE-SIZED HISTORY

BY DONAL FALLON REBEL IRISHWOMEN Last year, 2022, was an interesting one for Claddagh Records, the iconic label founded by Garech Browne in 1959. Revived in recent times, the label is dipping into its rich archival collections, the late Browne insisting that he ‘would like the recordings to be available to anyone interested in Irish … Read more

ON THIS DAY

BY AODHÁN CREALEY JANUARY 28/1547 King Henry VIII (55) died. Popularly remembered for his six marriages and his despotism (it’s estimated that he judicially murdered some 1,500 of his subjects, from humble servants to queens), it was Henry, of course, who introduced the Reformation to these islands. In 1534, when Pope Clement VII refused him … Read more

YEATS AND THE BOHS BOYS

By Brian Trench Just over 130 years ago, on 25 November 1892, Douglas Hyde delivered a lecture that was a landmark in the Irish Revival. ‘The Necessity for De-Anglicising Ireland’, later published as a pamphlet, underpinned the formation of the Gaelic League less than a year later. For this lecture Hyde had the platform of … Read more

Past and present

There are certain resonances between past and present in the current issue (30 years on from our first, in spring 1993, incidentally). Thomas P. Power’s article on the Pastorini prophecy (pp 26–9), which predicted the destruction of Protestantism in 1825, reminds us that irrational conspiracy theories—whether it be Pastorini, the Protocols of Zion or, in … Read more