By Fiona Fitzsimons In the 1500s some ‘Murrano’ Jewish families, expelled from Spain by the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, chose to settle in port towns along the Irish coast. The Murranos that settled in Ireland were merchant mariners, with capital and international contacts. In the early modern period they seem to have accepted diplomatic … Read more
By Peter Gray The collapse of Protestant radicalism in Ulster in the wake of the 1798 Rebellion has attracted much historical discussion. From being an epicentre of United Irish activity in the 1790s, Belfast and its rural hinterland appeared to have abandoned such enthusiasms and reoriented themselves to a conservative unionism over the following century. … Read more
By Lar Joye Irish soldiers began to serve in foreign European armies in large numbers after the Nine Years’ War and the defeat at Kinsale in 1603. While many served in specific Irish regiments of the French and Spanish armies, many more served as individuals and officers in Austria and even as far away as … Read more
By Tony Lyons Thomas Orde-Powlett, 1st Baron Bolton, was an English politician. In 1782 he was appointed to the privy council of Ireland and served as chief secretary from 1784 to 1787, providing him with an opportunity to express his commitment to raising the living standards of ordinary people. His work in the educational arena … Read more
By Diarmaid Ferriter Although over two and a half thousand Catholic churches were built in Ireland between the late eighteenth and the mid-nineteenth century, Dublin remained without a Catholic cathedral, as it does to this day. This situation may now be rectified, if long-mooted plans as part of what the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin calls … Read more